POWRE: Structural Constraints on Demographic Heterogeneity in Personal Networks

POWRE：个人网络中人口异质性的结构约束

• 批准号: 9753145
• 负责人: Pamela Popielarz
• 金额: $ 5.72万
• 依托单位: Northwestern University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1997
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1997-10-01 至 1999-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9753145&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: POWRE; Structural; Constraints; Demographic; Heterogeneity

This project concerns personal social relationships between people of different demographic backgrounds, such as friendships between African-Americans and whites. The investigator presents a partial theory of the social structural constraints on demographic heterogeneity in personal networks. She will undertake a visiting professorship at Northwestern University to enable her to refine the theory, develop specific hypotheses, and do preliminary data analysis in preparation for a full-scale empirical test of the resulting theory. The project broadly addresses one striking regularity about personal networks: almost all of our close personal contacts are demographically similar to us. Present theory stresses that a person's involvement in a homogeneous organizational setting increases the propensity to form network connections with demographically similar others. A more comprehensive theory of heterogeneity in personal networks will take into account organizational membership dynamics and people's participation in multiple organizational settings. The investigator lays out this theory, pointing out new hypotheses that will be tested. The scientific implications of the theory to be developed range widely because personal networks are a crucial part of the social landscape surrounding individuals. Networks affect individual outcomes ranging from labor market position to mental health. Personal networks also affect diversity within and across organizations, as well as organizational survival. As a result, a theory of personal network formation helps to explain basic stratification processes. Furthermore, this project and its results are extremely important to a society whose members differ by race, religion, sex, age, and education. We need a deeper understanding of heterogeneous personal networks because the relationships in them cross-cut these cleavages, providing the stable foundation for an integrated society. Network connections between, for example, African-Americans and whites, or people with high and low levels of education, can ensure that our society, although differentiated by race and education, is not divided by them. This POWRE award will assist the investigator in her primary research goal for the next few years. Taking a position as Visiting Assistant Professor will allow her to interact with organizational scholars and social network researchers in a new setting. The theoretical and empirical results of this larger project will not only contribute to the existing research literature and thus the investigator's visibility in her field, but will also assist her in her teaching and mentoring roles.

这个项目涉及不同人口背景的人之间的个人社会关系，例如非裔美国人和白人之间的友谊。研究人员提出了个人网络中人口异质性的社会结构约束的部分理论。她将在西北大学担任客座教授，以使她能够完善理论，开发具体的假设，并进行初步的数据分析，为所产生的理论进行全面的实证测试做准备。该项目大致解决了个人网络的一个惊人的规律性：几乎所有亲密的个人联系人在人口统计上都与我们相似。目前的理论强调，一个人参与到一个同质的组织环境中，会增加与人口统计相似的其他人形成网络联系的倾向。更全面的个人网络异质性理论将考虑组织成员动态和人们在多个组织环境中的参与。研究人员阐述了这一理论，指出了将被检验的新假设。这一有待开发的理论的科学含义广泛，因为个人网络是围绕个人的社会景观的重要组成部分。从劳动力市场的地位到心理健康，网络都会影响个人的结果。个人网络还影响组织内部和组织间的多样性，以及组织的生存。因此，个人网络形成理论有助于解释基本的分层过程。此外，这个项目及其结果对一个成员因种族、宗教、性别、年龄和教育程度不同而不同的社会极其重要。我们需要更深入地理解不同的个人网络，因为其中的关系贯穿了这些裂痕，为一个一体化的社会提供了稳定的基础。例如，非裔美国人和白人之间的网络联系，或者教育水平高和低的人之间的网络联系，可以确保我们的社会尽管因种族和教育而有所区别，但不会因他们而分裂。这一POWRE奖将帮助这位研究人员在未来几年实现她的主要研究目标。担任客座助理教授将使她能够在新的环境中与组织学者和社会网络研究人员互动。这个更大的项目的理论和经验结果不仅将有助于现有的研究文献，从而提高研究人员在其领域的知名度，而且还将有助于她发挥教学和指导作用。