(1985). Levine's Atlas of Corporate Interlocks. Connections ... - INSNA

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LEVINE'S ATLAS OF
CORPORATE
INTERLOCKS
In 1972, Joel Levine pretty much started the corporate interlock trade with his
ASR paper, "The Sphere of Influence" . In 1984, he has published his comprehensive Atlas .
It is in two volumes, with many multicolored maps . It is truly an atlas , using maps and
data to describe networks, not geography . Patterns of corporate interlocks are reduced
to maps by means of two unique algorithims (centroid scaling ; frequency reconstruction
scaling) that provide an overview of the relative positions of key corporations, groups
of corporations, and directors .
The network includes 400 of the largest publicly held corporations of the world
and their 8,000 directors . Who are the members of the Chicago group of corporations
Map and data show the group . What is the pattern of the Texas group The map suggests
that there is no Texas group; paths from Houston to Dallas are likely to pass through
New York . What is the path from New York to Paris Maps and data show the two groups
and indicate intermediaries .
This 1st edition is based on primary and secondary sources available in January,
1980 . Volume 1 discusses the techniques and the data, and presents extensive maps
of world interlocks and various sectors . It contains a lengthy table listing all of
the corporations in the network and their boards of directors . Volume 2 is one
table, listing each of the 8,000 directors, the corporations on whose boards they sit,
and the other members of these boards . Thus these data (on 400 pages of tables) are
organized for quick reference to corporation-to-corporation interlocks and to the
indirect contacts by which directors may reach boards of other corporations .
Published by WORLDNET, Box A-201, Hanover, NH 03755 . 2 volumes . 501pp + many
plates . $495 .00
The following excerpts from Levine's Atlas are used by permission and are
copyright (c) 1985 by Joel Levine (Soc, Dartmouth) .
For this atlas two distinct techniques of social
cartography hove been applied to the data of corporate
interlocks . One, centroid scaling (CS) . is particularly
adept at separating a large network into distinct substructures
. On CS maps of the corporate network these
sub-structures of persons and corporations stand apart
from the larger structures to which they ore connected .
Applied to the international network . CS cartography disploys
the division of the overall structure into separate
corporate centers . Among the separate centers the mop
shows a remarkably regular triangular pattern which represents
the large-scale shape of the international
network .
The second mapping technique, frequency reconstructive
scaling (FRS) is better suited to the mopping of the
centers themselves . It provides additional information
about the International network and weighs complex links
to produce an approximate, "best fit" mop of the interior
of the English-speaking / U .S . cluster of corporations .
INTRODUCTION TO CENTROID SCALING
A social mop reduces the likes of AT&T and other
major corporations of the world to the status of mere
points on a mop connected by lines to other points on the
mop of the corporate network . As a sociologist my problem
is to understand this network in the crude, almost
o-theoretical, sense of being able to represent it, to
describe its form, and to distinguish important links
from those that ore not . Is the organization centralized
around on elite or is it decentralized and in some sense
egalitarian Are there some positions that dominate the
whole and, if so, then which individuals, which corporations,
what industries, and what kinds of interests command
the key positions