Practical Research on the Construction of Social Network among the Members of the Alumni Association

在本研究中，我们对某女子大学校友会进行了实证研究。我们进行了(1)对校友会成员的调查研究；(2)对校友会会长、副会长、地方分会负责人等校友会管理人员的访谈研究；(3)在校友会总部对校友会主页修改过程的参与研究。我们以二战后日本社会网络格局的变化为基础，总结了这些深入研究的成果。我们介绍了四种类型的网络模式：1。2.封闭齐次网络；2 .封闭异构网络；3 .开放同构网络；open-heterogeneous网络。在这五十年中，传统的小区域内同质民族的紧密联系（1型）已经被新的2型和3型所取代。现在的问题是日本社会如何创建开放的异构网络（类型4）。日本许多校友会，尤其是传统女子学校的校友会，成员之间的网络格局也有同样的变化趋势。少数年长的同质成员长期管理着这些协会。因此，许多年轻一代的新成员对校友会的活动失去了兴趣。但我们的研究结果表明，如果他们改变管理观念，接受年轻一代可能感兴趣和/或提出的异质承诺和活动，传统的校友会网络可以改变他们的网络模式，并能够在各个方面支持成员的终身活动。这种变化会激活联想本身。我们可以提供的一种实用的新管理方法是通过主页和电子邮件系统的沟通设计。这种设计可以在不同世代的成员之间建立活跃的网络。

In this research, we had studied an alumni association of women's university empirically. We did (1)survey research of the members of alumni association, (2)interview research of the management staff of association including president and vice-presidents, heads of the local branches, (3)participant research in the head office of the association focusing the process of revising the home pages of the association.We had summarized the findings of these intensive researches on the basis of the changing patterns of social network in Japan after the World War II. We introduced four types of network pattern: 1.closed-homogeneous network, 2.closed-heterogeneous network, 3.open-homogeneous network, 4.open-heterogeneous network. The traditional strong closed ties of the homogeneous people in a small local area (type 1) had been replaced by the new pattern of 2 and 3 in these fifty years. What is now in question is how Japanese society could create the open-heterogeneous networks (type 4).Many Japanese alumni associations, especially those of traditional women's school, have the same trend of changing pattern of networks among members. Small number of elder homogeneous members had been managing the associations for long time. As a result, many new members of younger generation lost their interest in the activities of alumni association.But our findings suggest that if they change the concept of management and accept the heterogeneous commitments and activities which younger generation could interest and/or propose, the traditional network of alumni association could change their network pattern and be able to support the members in various aspects of their life-long activities. And this change would activate the associations themselves.One practical method for the new management we could offer is the communication devise through home page and E-mail system. This devise could create active networks among members of different generations.