Structure Of Social Ties Research Articles

Reliable network inference from unreliable data: A tutorial on latent network modeling using STRAND.

Social network analysis provides an important framework for studying the causes, consequences, and structure of social ties. However, standard self-report measures-for example, as collected through the popular "name-generator" method-do not provide an impartial representation of such ties, be they transfers, interactions, or social relationships. At best, they represent perceptions filtered through the cognitive biases of respondents. Individuals may, for example, report transfers that did not really occur, or forget to mention transfers that really did. The propensity to make such reporting inaccuracies is both an individual-level and item-level characteristic-variable across members of any given group. Past research has highlighted that many network-level properties are highly sensitive to such reporting inaccuracies. However, there remains a dearth of easily deployed statistical tools that account for such biases. To address this issue, we provide a latent network model that allows researchers to jointly estimate parameters measuring both reporting biases and a latent, underlying social network. Building upon past research, we conduct several simulation experiments in which network data are subject to various reporting biases, and find that these reporting biases strongly impact fundamental network properties. These impacts are not adequately remedied using the most frequently deployed approaches for network reconstruction in the social sciences (i.e., treating either the union or the intersection of double-sampled data as the true network), but are appropriately resolved through the use of our latent network models. To make implementation of our models easier for end-users, we provide a fully documented R package, STRAND, and include a tutorial illustrating its functionality when applied to empirical food/money sharing data from a rural Colombian population. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Opinion Dynamics and Social Group Information Efficiency: an agent-based model

A platform for agent-based modelling of social processes is developed. The focus is on information exchange in a group of social agents. The dynamics of opinions on some topic is modelled, as well as the structure of social ties, which are weakened if opinions are distant and strengthened if opinions are close. In addition, to objectify the notion of "information efficiency of communication in a group", a test is proposed in which the structure of social ties is transferred to the structure of neural network connections, so that the strength of a tie is equated to a weight. Training of such a "sociomorphic" neural network was conducted and tested on the MNIST array, a test of the ability to recognisehandwritten digits from 0 to 9. The previously described effects of polarisation of opinions and division of the group into subgroups with high density of ties within subgroups and weak ties between agents from different subgroups were obtained in the variant of discussion of one topic. To approximate real groups, a topic selection algorithm was added to the basic opinion sharing algorithm, which is performed by comparing the cosine distance between semantic vectors - the vector of values assigned to each agent and the vector of each of the 9 topics. The topic vectors were generated based on the real news agenda of the news agency. The value vectors were taken from work in which a large sample of Russian youth was surveyed about their association with something most important in life. The modelling results show that the presence of several topics in the news agenda makes the communication process more flexible and multidimensional: even for the most semantically close to values and frequently chosen topics, polarisation of opinions was much slower than in the case of a single topic, and complete segmentation of the group was not observed over the modelled time period. This methodological approach can be useful for modelling conflicts in different communities, as well as for designing artificial communities with increased constructive creative potential. For example, the model can be used to optimise communications in complex multicultural societies

A social network perspective on involvement in community energy initiatives: The role of direct and extended social ties to initiators

This study investigates the role of social networks in influencing individuals' decision whether to participate in a community energy initiative (CEI), by incorporating different types of social contact between community members and CEI initiators. Engagement of community members is crucial for the success of a CEI and thus a key question is how the initiators can reach community members and stimulate involvement. By analyzing the community's social network we investigate how the structure of social ties between community members and initiators influences participation. We take both existence and number of strong and weak direct personal ties into account. In addition, we investigate the role of extended ties community members have to initiators, operationalized via indirect links through co-memberships of local associations. Data were obtained from eight communities in the Netherlands where a CEI was recently initiated (N = 467 respondents). Our results demonstrate that community members' willingness to participate in a CEI is positively associated with direct ties to the initiators, both weak and strong, but there is no association with extended ties to initiators. Possible strategies of how initiators might best utilize their social ties are discussed.

Zaufanie jako komponent adaptacji społecznej osób w sytuacji uchodźczej – wybrane teoretyczne perspektywy studiów nad zjawiskiem

The topic of analysis is social trust treated as a component of the process of refugees’ social adaptation. Interpersonal and institutional trust is one of the main factors conditioning the quality of civic society and local environments. Their participants are not only people with formal status of citizens but also migrants and their specific group of refugees. Social trust, sense of agency and being located in the structure of social ties and networks are the factors empowering satisfactory social functioning. They are also the components of social adaptation and the subject of concern of the different disciplines of social sciences: educational studies, social psychology and social policy.

Factors and trends of social differentiation: new risks

The goal of this article is the analysis of the impact of digital transformation upon social and economic structure of modern society, principles of social management, and structure of social ties. A conclusion is made that society is not fully adjusted to the changing social circumstances, which elapse oversensitively on the background of aggravation of socioeconomic and political problems. Analysis is conducted on the problem of social inequality in modern Russia, including recently most relevant spatial and digital inequality. Methodological framework contains the theoretical scientific methods, systemic approach, analysis of empirical data of sociological research and statistical data. Emphasis is made on the social challenges that would face Russian society in the conditions of digital transformation. The author underline the ambiguity of consequences of digital transformation for the modern Russian society and the state. The government should focus of finding adequate response to the global challenges and help the citizens to adapt to major social changes that affect socioeconomic space of the country in the conditions of globalization and digitalization.

Сеть или текст? Факторы распространения протеста в социальных медиа: теория и анализ данных

Социальные сети способны аккумулировать и концентрировать протестный потенциал, который может затем выплескиваться на улицу. Сетевые связи между индивидами в онлайн-среде родственны связям в физической реальности, и их структура может оказывать влияние на распространение как информации о протесте, так и протестного поведения. Цифровые платформы способны выступать центральными площадками формулирования коллективных целей и идентичностей. Эти положения, сформулированные на основе проведенных ранее исследований, стали отправной точкой настоящей работы, сосредоточенной в ее эмпирической части на венесуэльском сегменте сети Twitter. “Элементарными единицами” протестной активности в Twitter являются отдельные сообщения (твиты), некоторые из которых мультиплицируются (retweet) и достигают аудитории национального масштаба. Именно эти, наиболее популярные твиты играют наибольшую роль в формировании протестного потенциала. Но какие твиты становятся популярными? Те, что написаны авторами, занимающими лучшую позицию в сетевой структуре, или те, которые имеют более яркое, насыщенное содержание? Мы формализовали эту альтернативу, выделив две группы показателей: одну составили индикаторы сетевой позиции автора, другая же характеризует содержание твита. В качестве зависимой переменной выступает количество ретвитов. Проанализировав более 5,7 млн уникальных твитов с использованием современных подходов и методов науки о данных (регрессия с LASSO-регуляризацией, скользящий контроль и др.), мы выявили, что показатели первой группы имеют существенно большее значение. Поскольку в политической онлайн-коммуникации в последние годы значимую роль играют боты (автоматизированные аккаунты, способные, в частности, делать ретвиты), то мы провели дополнительный анализ, “вычистив” из совокупности ретвитов те из них, которые сделаны ботами. Результат оказался в этом случае тем же, что и для исходной выборки: сеть важнее текста. Сетевая позиция автора, ассоциируемая с его популярностью (в особенности – его популярностью среди популярных пользователей), играет гораздо более значимую роль для распространения твита, чем его содержательные характеристики.

Small-World Networks of corruption

<p>Collective behavior forms and spreads through social contact. This thesis introduces a framework for understanding how the structure of social ties may impact the evolution of bribery. We represent relationships as highly clustered networks with small characteristic path lengths (i.e., small-world models having “local” and “long-range” contacts). Based on a principal-agent-client formulation, our model focuses on the effects of clustering on an equilibrium of persistent bribery. Collective outcomes depend on decision-making mechanisms that rely on sensitivity functions, which capture the level of influence between local contacts. Moreover, we represent the evolution of the network as a system of differential equations and identify its region of parameters for which the equilibrium of persistent bribery is stable. Our results show that an increase in clustering tends to decrease the levels of bribery. A more sensitive response to the behavior of neighbors, on the other hand, tends to increase bribery, but only up to a certain point. Beyond this threshold, the expected level of bribery remains constant, despite variations in the structural properties of the network.</p>

Networks and Contexts: Variation in the Structure of Social Ties

A core axiom of sociology is that social structure affects and is affected by human behavior. The term “social structure” conveys two quite different meanings. One meaning is relational, involving networks of ties between individuals or groups of individuals. A second meaning refers to the contexts containing these individuals. Studies of neighborhood and community effects depend on variability in both types of social structure. Using data from multiple villages in Nang Rong, Thailand, this article documents substantial variability in network structure and shows that network structure covaries with context in meaningful ways, suggesting reciprocal effects of changes in both. Finally, it considers implications of variability in network structure, showing that social cohesion affects the likelihood of finding and interviewing former village residents.

Networks and Contexts: Variation in the Structure of Social Ties

Networks and Contexts: Variation in the Structure of Social Ties

Social Interaction and Urban Space

Abstract Man, the social animal, has organized his cities for particular social objectives. His urban social communications take place within a spatially and socially restrictive network of interpersonal information contact. Viewed in this sense, cities exist to facilitate the social communications or interactions of their population. At the same time, however, diverse social goals and group frictions create barriers to smooth flows of information among urban dwellers. This paper introduces the theme of urban social interaction, outlines the structure of social ties in cities, and surveys two major urban problems relating explicitly to social interaction in the city. The approach here is to bring geographical concepts and knowledge to bear on problems of social interaction in urban space. It is hoped that greater insight by teachers and students into the social problems of cities is achieved by an improved understanding of the geography of social communications.