(1978). On Facilitating Networks for Social Change ... - INSNA

. . .Research Reports, cont'd"Development of structure in small groups" . The central hypothesis to be tested in this study isthat the development of social structures in small groups from open to closed systems can be explainedin terms of the elimination theory of Tversky . To test this hypothesis data will be collected from twosmall groups which will be brought together for a whole week in a closed setting ."Contact pattern of depressives" . After developing an instrument designed to measure contactstructures of depressives data will be collected for four groups : a group of clinical depressives, agroup of physically ill patients, a group of depressives who are outpatients and a group of "normal"people . The analysis of the contact structures will include geometric representations of the structuresand their comparison by means of PINDIS or other related methods .Duisburg/Wuppertal : "Structural development and processes of information in a population ofuniversity students" . The population to be explored in this study forms a relatively closed system ofbeginners in a specific branch separated from older students and from students of other branches . Theexpected rapid change in the personal networks will be studied by means of a panel of approximately 10waves . Different patterns of change in the personal networks of the students with respect to parentsand former friends will be mirrored in different positions in the newly developing network of thestudent community . Both aspects of development will be studied with regard to their importance for thediffusion of student related information and is expected to have consequences for behaviour related tostudying .Mannheim : "Stability and change in the power structure of a community" . The study is planned as areplication of the Julich community study in 1971 by Laumann and Pappi in order to investigate stabilityand change in the power structure of this community . It is hypothesized that instrumental issues tendto stabilize the existing power structure, whereas expressive issues are potentially disruptive for theexisting structure . Power and influence status is regarded as depending on power resources . The outcomesof specific issues will be analysed in terms of processes of resource exfhange, partial exchangemarkets, different impact of specific resources and strategic usage of resources .Vienna : "Networks of large corporations in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and Austria" . Thestudy will investigate networks of relations between large production companies and financial institutionsgiven by interlocking directorates and common ownership in the FRG and Austria . Structuralfeatures of the networks, e .g . overall density, clique structure and centrality of banks, will bedetermined and compared with related results for other nations . Aside from fundamental similaritiesdifferences based on divergent institutional frameworks of the countries, e .g . codetermination andmultifunctional banks (Universalbanken) in the FRG and a high proportion of state-owned enterprises andbanks in Austria are expected . Theoretical explanations, e .g . cooptation strategies for reducing thecomplexity of environments or "financial imperialism of banks", will also be considered .If you want further information about one of the projects please contact the groups directlythrough the addresses given above .Electronic Information Exchange by a Social Network :Summary of Research Proposal .Linton Freeman, Project Director(Ed . Note : Project approved to start January, 1978)It is proposed that 36-40 specialists in the study of social networks be afforded access to thesystem of electronic exchange . Social networks students, because they are geographically dispersed, andrepresent several disciplines, form a natural community for such an information exchange system . Theyare working on a diffuse set of problems that are just now coming to be recognized as interrelated .This area is one of the very few in all of social science that is currently vital and growing . Moreover,since this sort of computer based network is itself a natural object for study within the scopeof their interests, these specialists are an ideal community to produce the sort of self-evaluation theFoundation wants in this program .Thus, the proposed project has two main aims : (1) to establish a sense of community and enhancethe productivity of specialists in the study of social networks, and (2) to make a collective contributionto solving problems in evaluating the impact of computer-based information exchange .