Revisiting the strength of weak ties: lessons learned from social network leisure research

Abstract

Among the leisure disciplines, the study of social networks has informed research focussed on two areas: partnerships and social capital. This article reports the results of an empirical study of the association between Granovetter's (1970, Changing jobs: Channels of mobility information in a suburban community (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Harvard University, Boston, MA; 1973, The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78, 1360–1381) tie strength and partnership development. The results largely confirm Granovetter's original contention that weak ties, rather than strong, play critical roles in networks. Integrating this conclusion with findings reported in seven more recently published network-based articles produces three “lessons learned” to guide future network research and its practical application – principally to partnership development and perhaps also to the creation and appropriation of social capital, in leisure-related contexts: (1) focussing the analysis of ties on only one among the macro-, meso- and micro-levels must be balanced by giving equal importance to the remaining two; (2) identifying and nourishing weak ties. Not only are weak ties better than no ties (Cousens, Barnes, Stevens, Mallen, & Bradish, 2006, “Who's your partner? Who's your ally?” Exploring the characteristics of public, private, and voluntary recreation linkages. Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, 24, 32–55), they are more associated with development success than are strong ties, and they can be strengthened over time; and (3) identifying and assessing partners' partners' ties. The strength of partners' extra-agency networks – and the resources they possess – may bolster deficiencies in existing intra-organizational ties (Stodolska, 2007, Ethnic enclosure, social networks, and leisure behaviour of immigrants from Korea, Mexico, and Poland. Leisure/Loisir, 31, 277–324) by looking outward.