[LINK] "Social Networks, Interlocking Directorates, and the Power Elite"

[rfmcdonald]

At the Everyday Sociology Blog, sociology professor Christopher Andrews looked at how the elite of our society network.

cial network analysis involves studying social structures through the use of networks and graphs, allowing sociologists to visualize and measure properties of the ties that connect individuals, groups, or organizations. Rooted in the formal sociology of Georg Simmel (e.g., dyads vs. triads), anthropology (e.g., kinship diagrams), social psychology (e.g., group dynamics), and mathematical sociology, social network analysis has been used to study friendship and acquaintance networks, terrorist organizations, criminal drug markets, disease transmission, and sexual relationships, just to name a few examples.

How does it work?

One way is to examine the measurable properties or metrics of a given network, including connections (e.g., number, type) as well as the way in which they are distributed (e.g., centrality, distance). For example, Stanley Milgram's (1969) "small world" experiment found that people are, on average, "six degrees of separation" from any other person, a finding that has been replicated more recently by Duncan Watts (2002) using email. Similarly, Mark Granovetter (1973) used social network analysis to learn how people find jobs; rather than through close, personal connections, he found that people tended to find information about job opportunities through acquaintances, a phenomenon he refers to as the "strength of weak ties."

Visual diagrams of social networks – or sociograms – can also be used to highlight structural properties or traits such as bridges and structural holes. Structural holes refer to gaps or the absence of a tie within a given social network, while bridges describe the way in which an individual fills a structural hole by linking two otherwise unconnected groups. Ronald Burt (2004), for example, likens structural holes to social capital; real estate agents, for example, profit from the distance created between home buyers and sellers, while car dealerships serve as middle-men between car manufacturers and consumers.

One of the more interesting applications of this method can be found at the website TheyRule.net which allows users to create interactive diagrams of companies' and organizations' board of directors. Along with some of the aforementioned studies, I also like to show students the connections that link various corporations and institutions. Given that a recent student newspaper article cited complaints with the university's food service provider, several students suggested we look at Aramark.

There's more analysis there. I would say that, with powerful networks like these, who needs conspiracy theories?