| Member Profile : Mario Small |
|
 | | | |
| Bibliographic Information |
Small, M. (2009). Unanticipated Gains: Origins of Network Inequality in Everyday Life ( ed.). New York: Oxford University Press
Small, M., Jacobs, E. & Massengill, R. (2008). Why Organizational Ties Matter for Neighborhood Effects: A Study of Resource Access through Childcare Centers. Social Forces, 87 (1), 387-414
Small, M. (2007). Racial Differences in Networks: Do Neighborhood Conditions Matter?. Social Science Quarterly, 88 (2), 320-343.
Small, M. (2006). Neighborhood Institutions as Resource Brokers: Childcare Centers, Inter-Organizational Ties, and Resource Access among the Poor.. Social Problems, 53 (2), 274-292.
|
| | | Software & Data | | Active Calendar Listings |
|
|
|
| | | Network Graduate Programs | | Network Courses |
|
|
|
| | | Jobs Posted | | Sunbelt Submissions |
|
| Sunbelt XXIX - March 10 to March 15, 2009 - Bahia Hotel | | Abstract : What Is a Close Friend? Mothers, Childcare Centers, and the Possibility of Compartmentally Intimate Ties |
| In various ways, network scholars as diverse as George Simmel and Edward Laumann have argued that friendship ties can be domain-specific—e.g., two people in the same bowling league can develop a friendship limited strictly to conversations on sports. However, they have often argued that these ties are not likely to be strong. Based on in-depth interviews with approximately New York City 65 mothers who formed friendships through their children’s daycare centers, this paper questions that expectation. Many mothers made genuinely intimate friendships that were nonetheless limited in conversation and activity to the centers, children, and family-related issues. (Others made standard strong friendships; others, only acquaintance ties.) These theoretically unexpected relations were made possible by the organizational embeddedness of these friendships—the fact that they were formed and sustained in the organizational context of childcare centers. Theorists expect strong friendships not to be compartmental in part because of the work required to sustain strong friendships. Centers, however, performed much of this maintenance work, by guaranteeing social encounters among mothers through their required fieldtrips, activities, PTA meetings, and others—all while providing a focus (children) around which to delimit a friendship. The paper argues for a perspective on friendships that takes seriously the embeddedness of actors in routine organizations, and argues that “compartmental intimates” may be more common in 21st century friendships than assumed by formal network models. |
| Sunbelt XXXI - February 08 to February 13, 2011 - Trade Winds Beach Resort
http://www.tradewindsresort.com/
St. Pete Beach | | Abstract : Organizational Embeddedness and Strong-Weak Ties: Why Mothers in Childcare Centers Seem to Contradict Granovetter’s Thesis |
| A common rule of thumb, derived from now classic studies in SNA research, is that strong ties tend to provide support but not new information, while weak ties provide new information but not social support. The notion derives from the basic principles that strong ties tend to be inbred, that only weak ties are likely to be bridges, and that closure encourages strong commitments. The present paper examines a case that appears to contradict the rule of thumb: among mothers of children enrolled in New York City childcare centers, many reported friendships providing strong forms of support but also consistently new information. Respondents formed strong bonds that were, nonetheless, compartmental in nature, strictly delimited in discursive, interactional, and spatial dimensions. In-depth interviews with 67 mothers (and some fathers) make clear that the organizational context in which the friendships are sustained make possible and encourage the formation of ties that exhibit both strong- and weak-tie elements but not the anticipated traits of either. Findings suggest probing more closely how interactional contexts structure the nature of strength in dyadic relations. |
|
|
| |
|
