Disliking friends of friends in schools: How positive and negative ties can co-occur in large numbers |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Education, University of Oxford, 15 Norham Gardens, Oxford OX2 6PY, UK;2. GIRSEF, University of Louvain (UCLouvain), Place Montesquieu 1/L2.08.04, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium |
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Abstract: | Current network scholarship does not explain why negative and positive ties both frequently occur in large numbers in some settings, such as schools. In the present paper, I argue that this can happen when people disproportionately send negative ties to socially close individuals (‘friends of friends’). I propose a new theory—‘intensity theory’—which argues that disliking ties disproportionately occur between friends of friends in ‘intense foci’. Intense foci are settings that concentrate social relations, and in which other people are difficult to avoid. I draw on a mixed-methods case study of a boarding school and several strands of literature to substantiate the theory. In so doing, I offer a new mechanism for the initial appearance of disliking ties, propose a contextual approach to balance theory and networks in general, and suggest a more complex view of the link between positive and negative ties. |
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Keywords: | Negative ties Balance theory Network theory Schools Mixed methods |
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