The dynamics of cyberspace: Examining and modelling online social structure

Butler, Brian Scott Carnegie-Mellon University 1999 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

It has been proposed that online social structures represent new forms of organizing which are fundamentally different from traditional social structures. However, while there is a growing body of empirical research that considers behavioral aspects of online activity, research on online social structure structural remains largely anecdotal. This work consists of three papers that combine previous studies of traditional social structures, empirical analysis of longitudinal data from a sample of Internet listservs, and computational modeling to examine the dynamics of social structure development in networked environments. The first paper (Title: When is a Group not a Group: An Empirical Examination of Metaphors for Online Social Structure) empirically examines the appropriateness of metaphors which have been used in popular and academic discussions of online social structure. The structural features implied by the metaphors are compared with data from a random sample of e-mail based Internet listservs. The results indicate that the most commonly applied metaphor (‘small group’) does not accurately represent the membership and communication features observed in these online social structures. Furthermore, there is evidence that the characterization of online structures in these terms has significantly biased the selection of cases and stories in the current literature. The empirical results also suggest that the metaphor of ‘voluntary associations’ is more accurate and hence is better foundation for theorizing about online social structure. In the second paper (Title: Membership Size, Communication Activity, and Sustainability: The Internal Dynamics of Networked Social Structures) presents a resource-based theory of social structures. This model implies that structural features, such as size and communication activity, play both positive and negative roles in the sustainability of a social structure. Prior work has argued that networked communication technologies will significantly reduce the negative impact of size and communication activity, resulting in fundamentally different social structures. However, analysis of the longitudinal data from the e-mail based Internet listservs indicates that size and communication activity continue to have both positive and negative effects. This suggests that while the use of networked communication technologies may alter the form of communication, balancing the positive and negative impacts of membership size and communication activity remains a fundamental problem underlying the development of sustainable social structures. The third paper (Title: Communication Cost, Attitude Change and Membership Maintenance: A Model of Technology and Social Structure Development) integrates processes of individual belief change and member movement in a dynamic model of online social structure development. Contributed messages create a composite signal, providing members with information about the benefits of membership. This information changes members' beliefs about the structure and affects their willingness to remain members. The processes of communication, individual belief change, and membership maintenance form a cycle that underlies the development of the collective. Communication costs, a feature of the communication infrastructure, affect a social structures development by moderating the process of member belief change. A dynamic, multi-agent computational model of social structure development was implemented, calibrated, and validated using the listserv data. Analysis of the model implies that reduced communication costs, as are expected in networked environments, slow down the development process, resulting in online social structures which have more (and more diverse) members while being less stable than traditional face-to-face associations.

Social structure, redefinition of the past, and prospective orientations: A study of the post-communist transformation in Poland

Tomescu, Irina The Ohio State University 2006 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

The main goal of this dissertation is to analyze the role of psychological determinants for individuals' current location in the post-communist social structure. I argue that structurally determined evaluations of the past affect future orientations and, in turn, future orientations affect further structural outcomes. Evaluations of the past are conceptualized in terms of the degree of positive/negative assessment of the socialist system. This specific reference point is essential for my research expectations since "socialist system" represents an abandoned regime. Thus, change in opinion about socialism is not caused by the change in its object; it might be caused only by the change in the subject---a person and his or her conditions. Rational action theory and cognitive dissonance theory provide a strong framework within which the process of political attitude formation and its apparent inconsistencies can be considered. This is a multi-method study, and I use both primary and secondary data. The Polish panel survey, POLPAN 1988-2003 represents the backbone for the quantitative parts of my analysis. In this survey a representative sample of adult Poles was interviewed in 1988 and re-interviewed in 1993, 1998, and 2003. In addition, I use the POLTEST 2004-2005 Polish panel survey to examine whether Markov-type processes have significant explanatory power for long-term change in public opinion about socialism. In a large part of my analyses I treat the data as cross-sectional, using OLS estimates for particular time-points. However, because panel data have hierarchical structure, I also use population-averaged cross-sectional time-series analysis to account for autocorrelation and multicollinearity. In-depth interviews provide additional materials about the mechanism linking social structure, assessment of the past and future orientations. To make this linkage more specific, I structure my analyses along two areas of inquiry. First, I examine the determinants of evaluation of socialism. I identify structural factors, contextual effects and individual-level determinants to be crucial for mass-level political attitude formation. Second, I analyze the mechanism through which positive evaluations of the past affect social-structural location, including the mediating effect of future orientations. Overall, results consistently show that psychological determinants play an important part in explaining social inequality in post-communist Poland. Positive assessment of socialism affects negatively the location of individuals in the social structure directly, and also indirectly, through optimistic future orientations. The latter affect income and class position in positive way, and independently of its being grounded in the legacy of the past.

Social structure simulation and inference using artificial intelligence techniques

Tsvetovat, Maksim Carnegie Mellon University 2005 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

The study of complex social and technological systems, such as organizations, requires a sophisticated approach that accounts for the underlying psychological and sociological principles, communication patterns and the technologies within these systems. Social Network Analysis and link analysis have since inception operated on the cutting edge bringing together mathematical analysis of social structures and qualitative reasoning and interpretation. As available computing power grew, social network-based models have become not only an analysis tool, but also a methodology for building new theories of social behaviour and organizational evolution, frequently through the creation of simulation models. This work examines the past approaches of creating Social Network-based semantically consistent and interpretable models of social structure and social networks, as well as social simulation tools. I propose the creation of a multi-theory, multi-level simulation model of social structure that relies on social network theory and Artificial Intelligence algorithms. I further propose the creation of a robust and scalable social structure semantic that facilitates interpretable reasoning about evolution of social structure.

Exploring the Dynamic Human Interactions that Shape Social Change: A Case Study of an Antitrafficking Social Entrepreneurial Effort

Fuessel, Angie Kay The George Washington University 2015 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

Social entrepreneurship often occurs in complex contexts, characterized by multiple stakeholders and the need for collaboration to innovate solutions. However, most research has focused on individual, "heroic" social entrepreneurs. Little is known about how diverse actors interact with social structures via emergent processes resulting in social change. This was a case study of Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT), a social entrepreneurial nongovernmental organization established to educate, equip, empower, and mobilize the trucking industry to combat sex trafficking. The study examined three "game-changing" actions perceived to have created structural change. The purpose was to understand the social change process as shaped by stakeholder actions---and governed by knowledgeable actors---and their dynamic interaction with social structures. This study used structuration (Giddens, 1984) and strong structuration (Stones, 2005) theories to produce a rich understanding of the multilevel dynamics of social change within the context of key actions. TAT reframed the problem to create and grow a new anti--sex trafficking structure. It used its lack of embeddedness in the trucking and law enforcement structures to its advantage, yet was both subtly adapting to them and using soft power tactics and social capital techniques to gain legitimacy, resources, and influence to change them. The case revealed that "game-changing" actions can originate under a variety of circumstances, yet interactions of individual structures were key for both fueling the actions and fostering external structural change. TAT's mutually empowering interactions with stakeholders helped it secure champions, who cocreated and diffused innovative anti--sex trafficking practices. Yet, TAT also used "structure" to codify these as "new norms" and scale innovations. Ultimately, TAT has become the central node for the anti--sex trafficking movement across trucking and law enforcement and a model for other antitrafficking partnerships between nongovernmental organizations and industry. Thus, the case reveals that (a) even in large-scale change, tapping into and fostering change in internal structures can be tantamount for prompting game-changing actions and external structural change; (b) TAT champions are fellow innovators; and (c) the real heroes are the trucking and law enforcement individuals who are looking for, reporting, and investigating potential cases of trafficking.

Rethinking the structural basis of urban development: The power and peril of communities in post-Katrina New Orleans

Go, Min Hee The University of Chicago 2012 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

In this dissertation, I examine how social capital at the community level contributes to the promotion of development in urban contexts. In particular, this dissertation investigates how the patterns of social structure in New Orleans neighborhoods affect how the city has recovered from Hurricane Katrina's landfall in 2005. In chapter 1 I discuss why I chose post-Katrina New Orleans to study the relationship between social capital and urban development. In the following chapter I revisit the concept of social capital and how it is understood in urban contexts. In particular, I point out that social capital in the current literature is narrowly defined as an individual's horizontal social network, but the structural element is crucial in understanding the meaning and utility of social capital. To advance this idea, I suggest a conceptual framework that emphasizes the structural origins of social capital based on formality and directionality. Chapters 3 and 4 outline a political economic context in which post-Katrina communities are situated. In chapter 3 I argue that the rise of social capital is based on the structural constraints that arise from the federalist intergovernmental structure. First, the federal government is pressured into protecting damaged communities in inherently flood-prone areas, but this "return to the familiar" ends up increasing the likelihood of hazards in the case of future disaster. Second, although state and local government should invest in disaster management theoretically, they have little incentive to do so due to the heavy cost burden and lack of immediate benefit. These intergovernmental constraints lead to what I call community paradox: Despite the rise of civic engagement, its scope is limited such that benefits of social capital seldom cross neighborhood boundaries and do not reach the most disadvantaged population in the community. Based on this argument, Chapter 4 traces the history of New Orleans political economy that allowed for community-led redevelopment after Katrina. In Chapter 5 I examine the role of locally embedded social structure on post-Katrina repopulation. Employing Geographic Information System (GIS) and a spatial lag regression design, this chapter explores the effect of pre-Katrina organizational density on post-Katrina repopulation. I show that there exists a consistent positive association between primary social organizations and repopulation, while ancillary social organizations are found to have no impact. Furthermore, I reveal that the role of civic organizations is spatially bounded, such that as recovery goes on, the spatial diffusion effect attenuates over time. Results suggest that the role of civic organizations in urban development is positive only to the extent that (i) these organizations foster formal social relationships, and (ii) they reinforce existing spatial boundaries. Chapter 6 shifts our focus to political engagement. Focusing on the potential effect of community political participation on the distributive patterns of urban service provided by city government, I test a hypothesis that the number of building permits and the speed of permit issuance are positively associated with the degree of community participation in local politics. Using a unique data set including permit applications from 2005 - 2008, I find that political factors are associated with building permits distribution in various ways. First, political participation in local politics contributes to an increase in the number of permits granted in a community, and greatly reduces the duration of time before which the permit is issued. However, while participation in national elections is only slightly associated with the number of permits, it is not associated with the speed of permit issuance. Third, support for a particular candidate has no influence on either of these outcomes. To complement the quantitative findings from previous chapters, chapter 7 offers qualitative evidence on how social capital shapes the contour of post-Katrina recovery. I trace the processes of redevelopment in two neighborhoods, Broadmoor and Freret, through the lens of resident experience. I start with recounting the history of these neighborhoods and organizations based within them. I then document the ways in which residents overcame difficulties of post-Katrina redevelopment by using preexisting organizational resources. As it turned out, the preexisting social structure played a crucial role in resurrecting both neighborhoods (albeit to a different degree). However, despite (or because of) the successful community recovery, part of the neighborhood became the target rather than the beneficiary of the community development efforts. Instead of receiving assistance for comeback and rebuilding, some of the residents were involuntarily driven out of the neighborhood. In closing, I summarize the findings and address some of the major weaknesses in the dissertation. Then I discuss this dissertation's contribution to the current scholarship and share thoughts for further research. By looking at New Orleans recovery processes, this project ultimately seeks to advance our knowledge on the development of declining cities. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).

What structures network structure? How class, culture, and context matter in creating social capital

Schultz, Jennifer Lee The University of Arizona 2013 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

A considerable body of research shows that network structure can either assist or hinder one's access to social capital. Though the effects of particular structural arrangements of relationships are well known, there is comparatively little research on how a person might come to have one structural arrangement of ties over another. This study asks: What structures network structure? What cultural templates guide persons in their practice of friendship and in managing, maintaining, and adapting their personal communities over time? What contextual factors influence the duration and intensity of social relationships? Respondents were asked to make a list of "people who are important to you" and to describe the relationships individually while labeling each person on a social map. Interviews were coded using content analysis software in order to assess emergent cultural themes and the settings from which social relationships were drawn. Interview data confirmed respondents' use of cultural templates in the practice of friendship, which may affect one's ability to acquire and/or lose social capital. Interview data demonstrated how material resources may impact the vigor with which persons engage with social settings. Finally, some respondents reported important voluntary relationships that are at once high-commitment and low-contact. Frequently this type of tie arose when a relationship had outlived its original social context. This finding challenges the idea that contact and commitment usually go together in voluntary relationships.

Who You Know: Pre-Entry Contacts and Post-Entry Social Structure

Sterling, Adina D Emory University 2011 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

A growing body of research suggests that disparities in workers' networks propel them into stratified opportunities in organizations. Workers that are embedded in organizational networks have greater resources and career rewards than less socially-connected workers. Little is known, however, about how structural differences in workers' networks arise. This dissertation presents and tests a theory on the origins of structural differences in workers' networks. The theory points to the significance of pre-entry relationships that influence access to networks in organizations. I argue that pre-entry relationships are a product of an external structure that conditions interaction opportunities between organizational insiders and outsiders. When workers are hired with pre-entry relationships they form more social ties in organizations than workers without pre-entry relationships. After establishing the relationship between pre- and post-entry social structure, I develop arguments on how these structures impact mobility in organizations. Past research indicates that all other things equal, individuals with relationships to organizational members are more likely to be hired by employers. Here I suggest that pre-entry contacts also influence career outcomes after individuals join organizations. I examine the influence of pre- and post-entry social structure on post-entry mobility. I test these predictions using data collected from graduate students in business and law that completed internships. I investigate the effect of pre-entry relationships on the networks that graduate students formed and on their acquisition of post-graduate job offers from employers. An important concern when testing this prediction is that pre-entry contacts are not randomly assigned. My context affords me the chance to observe graduate students' networks at the university. I use their university networks as a proxy for network behavior in regression Models. Additionally I use a two-stage IV technique to determine if external structures condition the likelihood of having pre-entry relationships that subsequently impact post-entry networks and career rewards. Finally I conduct semi-structured interviews to gain qualitative insights on pre- and post-entry social structures and careers. Quantitative and qualitative evidence suggests that networks and mobility outcomes are rooted in pre-entry relationships.

Toward a Theory of Social Stability: Investigating Relationships Among the Valencian Bronze Age Peoples of Mediterranean Iberia

Cegielski, Wendy Hope ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Arizona State Univ 2020 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

What causes social systems to resist change? Studies of the emergence of social complexity in archaeology have focused primarily on drivers of change with much less emphasis on drivers of stability. Social stability, or the persistence of social systems, is an essential feature without which human society is not possible. By combining quantitative modeling (Exponential Random Graph Modeling) and the comparative archaeological record where the social system is represented by networks of relations between settlements, this research tests several hypotheses about social and geographic drivers of social stability with an explicit focus on a better understanding of contexts and processes that resist change. The Valencian Bronze Age in eastern Spain along the Mediterranean, where prior research appears to indicate little, regional social change for 700 years, serves as a case study. The results suggest that social stability depends on a society’s ability to integrate change and promote interdependency. In part, this ability is constrained or promoted by social structure and the different, relationship dependencies among individuals that lead to a particular social structure. Four elements are important to constraining or promoting social stability—structural cohesion, transitivity and social dependency, geographic isolation, and types of exchange. Through the framework provided in this research, an archaeologist can recognize patterns in the archaeological data that reflect and promote social stability, or lead to collapse. Results based on comparisons between the social networks of the Northern and Southern regions of the Valencian Bronze Age show that the Southern Region’s social structure was less stable through time. The Southern Region’s social structure consisted of competing cores of exchange. This type of competition often leads to power imbalances, conflict, and instability. Strong dependencies on the neighboring Argaric during the Early and Middle Bronze Ages and contributed to the Southern Region’s inability to maintain social stability after the Argaric collapsed. Furthermore, the Southern Region participated in the exchange of more complex technology—bronze. Complex technologies produce networks with hub and spoke structures highly vulnerable to collapse after the destruction of a hub. The Northern Region’s social structure remained structurally cohesive through time, promoting social stability.

Situating responsibility for injustice

Aragon, Corwin Scott University of Colorado at Boulder 2013 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

Much of the suffering and death in the world is neither natural nor inevitable, but rather results from the unjust structure of present systems of social interaction. These situations are structural injustices, and for any specific structural injustice, some set of agents is morally responsible for remedying it. In <italic>Situating Responsibility for Injustice</italic>, I offer a new account of individual moral responsibility for structural injustice, or, what I call, structural responsibility. Specifically, I argue for four distinct claims. First, I argue for a minimal conception of structural injustice, which explains that structural injustices occur when social structures systematically harm members of certain social groups by positioning them in oppressive social relationships. Second, I argue that we ought to conceptualize the agents responsible for remedying injustice as structurally-situated; this account of social agency explains that the conduct of structurally-situated agents is both deeply shaped by and works to re-shape the social structures in which they are situated. Third, I argue that an agent’s social connection to specific injustices makes her complicit in those injustices, and her complicity is the only adequate moral basis of her structural responsibilities. Finally, I argue that structurally-responsible agents must discharge their responsibilities by: a) drawing on the specific social resources provided them by their structural location, b) working to reform or transform the unjust structures in which they are situated, and c) prioritizing and weighing their responsibilities in proportion to the strength (determined by both the kind and degree of the connection) of their social connections.

Essays on John Rawls and Social Theory

Rosenberg, James Harvard University ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 2024 해외박사(DDOD)

소속기관이 구독 중이 아닌 경우 오후 4시부터 익일 오전 9시까지 원문보기가 가능합니다.

Each of the following three chapters is written to be read on its own, but they are connected by the question: How does Rawlsian political philosophy relate to social theory? Rawls thought that principles of justice must be developed in light of social theory. I argue that his own social theory, that of society as a fair system of cooperation (FSC), is responsible for some of the limitations of the Rawlsian framework. The dissertation uses Rawls's insight about the relationship between political philosophy and social theory to internally criticize Rawlsian political philosophy with respect to its capacity to diagnose and offer adequate prescriptions against the injustices it criticizes. Each of the chapters attempt to elaborate on Rawls's own methodological thesis that political philosophy must be in dialogue with social theory.Chapter 1 argues that Rawlsians ought to demonstrate the capacity to diagnose the injustices they criticize. With some of Rawls's critics, I argue that Rawlsian theory struggles to adopt that diagnostic role. My contribution is to offer reasons for this failure having to do with the social theory underlying Rawls's political philosophy. I attempt to render what is usually an external criticism of Rawls (that his theory lacks the capacity to diagnose the sources of injustice and other social problems, an important task that is by design irrelevant to Rawlsian theory) into an internal one (it is a failure, by Rawls's own standards, that his theory struggles to carry out the diagnostic role of political philosophy). I argue that the social theory from which Rawls derives his normative principles helps explain why the Rawlsian framework tends to lack the capacity to diagnose the injustices it criticizes. Chapter 2 shows how Rawls's social theory imposes diagnostic limits on his framework, which prevent it from fully understanding and criticizing structural power in the American political economy. I argue that it is not an idiosyncratic oversight that Rawls focused on instrumental power. Rather, this focus results from the conception of society as a FSC that underlies his framework. Some recent work within the liberal egalitarian tradition has given attention to structural power, but their prescriptions are inadequate solutions to the problems they rightly raise. I locate the reason for these shortcomings in a similar social theoretical blind spot as Rawls. I propose that Rawlsians, and liberal egalitarians generally, ought to care about structural power given their concern for the development of the moral powers and stability, self-respect, and the full autonomy of citizens. However, if the tradition is to offer adequate prescriptions to the problem of structural power, it will need to adopt a model of society that departs from the FSC.Chapter 3 examines some the recent political science literature on the politics of resentment in the United States and argues that, despite Rawls's sensitivity to the psychological impact the basic structure has on individuals, Rawlsian social theory impedes a full understanding of the sources of resentment and renders Rawlsian remedies to the politics of resentment insufficient. I argue that the politics of resentment ought to be understood, at least in part, as a reaction to economic and social forces that are out of the control of ordinary citizens and that instill in them a sense of precarity. The Rawlsian framework is capable of recognizing that resentment is a feeling fostered by the basic structure. It misses why this occurs and this leads Rawlsians to offer prescriptions that may not be enough to curb the sources of resentment and achieve a stable liberal democracy of self-respecting citizens.