Suchergebnisse

Using recently collected data from the 2006 General Social Survey, we compare levels of segregation by race and along other dimensions of potential social cleavage in the contemporary United States. Americans are not as isolated as other recent evidence suggests. However, hopes that "bridging" social capital is more common in broader acquaintanceship networks than in core networks are not supported by the GSS data. Instead, the entire acquaintanceship network appears to be as segregated as the more restricted and much smaller network based on trust. Social divisions based on religiosity, political ideology, family behaviors and socioeconomic standing are high and in some cases rival racial segregation in their intensity. The major challenge to social integration today comes less from the risk of social isolation--complete isolation is rare--than from the tendency of many Americans to isolate themselves from others who differ on race, political ideology, level of religiosity, and other salient aspects of social identity.

"Using newly collected data from the General Social Survey, we compare levels of segregation by race and along other potential dimensions of social cleavage for ties defined in terms of trust and acquaintanceship. We further estimate the size of the trust network and compare its size and structure to recent estimates obtained from the 2004 General Social Survey by McPherson et al. Americans are less disconnected than other recent evidence suggests. However, if racial segregation is the standard, then America is highly segregated across class and values dimensions as well as race and ethnicity. We further find that segregation is insensitive to tie strength. Scholars have long found homophily in close ties, while scholars such as Putnam have looked to weak ties for socially integrative 'bridging' social capital. However, 'bridging' social capital does not appear to be more plentiful for weak ties than it is for strong ties." (author's abstract)

Using 2006 General Social Survey data, the authors compare levels of segregation by race and along other dimensions of potential social cleavage in the contemporary United States. Americans are not as isolated as the most extreme recent estimates suggest. However, hopes that "bridging" social capital is more common in broader acquaintanceship networks than in core networks are not supported. Instead, the entire acquaintanceship network is perceived by Americans to be about as segregated as the much smaller network of close ties. People do not always know the religiosity, political ideology, family behaviors, or socioeconomic status of their acquaintances, but perceived social divisions on these dimensions are high, sometimes rivaling racial segregation in acquaintanceship networks. The major challenge to social integration today comes from the tendency of many Americans to isolate themselves from others who differ on race, political ideology, level of religiosity, and other salient aspects of social identity.

Anatomie d'une escroquerie : Confiance et réseaux sociaux. Comment les réseaux sociaux favorisent-ils la confiance dans le cas des escroqueries ? L'affaire Santa est un « cas stratégique » de par son ampleur et sa durée. Ce cas d'escroquerie présente de fortes spécificités, dans la mesure où il concerne essentiellement des militaires expatriés outre-mer. Deux officiers ont démarché ces militaires pour leur proposer de soi-disant placements financiers à haut rendement. Je m'intéresse plus précisément aux leviers utilisés par ces démarcheurs, c'est-à-dire aux relations communes dont ils se recommandaient, et à la nature du lien entre ces leviers et les cibles démarchées en fonction du statut des cibles (sous-officiers, officiers ou civils). Les analyses portent sur une enquête par questionnaire auprès de 117 victimes de l'escroquerie.

Structural balance theory has been developed in sociology and psychology to explain how interacting agents, e.g., countries, political parties, opinionated individuals, with mixed trust and mistrust relationships evolve into polarized camps. Recent results have shown that structural balance is necessary for polarization in networks with fixed, strongly connected neighbor relationships when the opinion dynamics are described by DeGroot-type averaging rules. We develop this line of research in this paper in two steps. First, we consider fixed, not necessarily strongly connected, neighbor relationships. It is shown that if the network includes a strongly connected subnetwork containing mistrust, which influences the rest of the network, then no opinion clustering is possible when that subnetwork is not structurally balanced; all the opinions become neutralized in the end. In contrast, it is shown that when that subnetwork is indeed structurally balanced, the agents of the subnetwork evolve into two polarized camps and the opinions of all other agents in the network spread between these two polarized opinions. Second, we consider time-varying neighbor relationships. We show that the opinion separation criteria carry over if the conditions for fixed graphs are extended to joint graphs. The results are developed for both discrete-time and continuous-time models.

One of the most important factors in human interaction and communication is trust. Each organization performing its quotidian tasks use intentionally or involuntary established trust relations to estimate the probability of achieving the expected results or the level of confidentiality. As in societies that evolved from real world relationship (e.g. school, office, sport activity, etc.) also in virtual communities (e.g. chat rooms, Web boards, mailing lists, etc.) trust is one of the most fundamental type of binding among the group members. In this article the trust relation establishment and evolution in virtual communities has been investigated. The presented model uses some typical parameters like node degree and centrality coefficient related to social network description and analysis.

Social, cultural, and organizational differences between U.S. military forces (USMs), multinational forces (MNFs), other U.S. and foreign governent agencies (OGAs) and non-government organizations (NGOs) make interactions between members of these organizations engaged in stability, security, transition and reconstruction operations (SSTR) less effective.

Abstract
This paper brings two major research lines in current sociology together. Research on social networks has long focused primarily on network effects but meanwhile also addresses the emergence and dynamics of networks. Research on trust in social and economic relations shows that networks have effects on trust. Using game theory, we provide a simple model that allows for an integrated and simultaneous analysis of network effects on trust and for the endogenous emergence of the network. The model also allows for characterizing the value of the network. We use standard assumptions on full strategic rationality. Testable implications of the model as well as model extensions are sketched.