Core Discussion Networks of Americans

Marsden, Peter V.

doi:10.2307/2095397

Cited by 1,568 publications

(1,215 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Even in societies that are not in the midst of a major social transformation, as is under way in China, intergenerational mobility results in intergenerational heterophily with respect to education, occupation, and place of residence, making family ties less helpful for job search (Marsden 1987;McPherson et al 2001). However, in a context with high intergenerational homophily on work-relevant characteristics, family members might be relevant to a job seeker's search.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unless occupation and other workrelevant characteristics are likely to be inherited, family members or childhood friends are likely to be dissimilar to the job seeker on work-relevant dimensions. For example, we know that cohort differences produce considerable family heterophily with respect to education, occupation, and place of residence (Marsden 1987;McPherson, Smith-Lovin, and Cook 2001). As a result, while a search through strong ties might be more likely to lead to an offer, it might not necessarily lead to a good offer.…”

Section: Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Motivation vs. relevance: Using strong ties to find a job in Urban China

Obukhova¹

2012

Social Science Research

109

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While the idea that contacts matter in finding a job is intuitively appealing, we still do not know-after decades of research-how and why strong ties benefit job seekers. To resolve this confusion, we need to theorize how specific characteristics of ties are related to the mechanisms that make job search through contacts effective. We have reasons to expect that, while a contact's motivation influences the likelihood that a job seeker receives an offer, her homophily with the job seeker on occupation and other job-relevant attributes influences the quality of the offer. The use of strong ties among university students to find jobs in China provides a unique opportunity to empirically isolate the relationship between contact characteristics and the mechanisms through which contacts benefit the job seeker. I tested my hypotheses with data on both the successful and unsuccessful job searches of 478 graduates of China's flagship universities, who, as first-time job seekers, primarily used strong ties. Survey results are consistent with my hypotheses: Job seekers who used strong ties to look for jobs had more offers-but not better offers-than those who used only formal methods.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Motivation vs. relevance: Using strong ties to find a job in Urban China

Obukhova¹

2012

Social Science Research

109

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“…(see e.g. Burt, 1984;Marsden, 1987). For social 5 capital research the Name Generator / interpreter can provide detailed social network and social capital information, but its costs may be high (see also Lin & Erickson, this volume), while for many research questions it may also retrieve much superfluous data ( Van der Gaag & Snijders, 2004a).…”

Section: Available Instrumentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Position Generator Measures and Their Relationship to Other Social Capital Measures1

Gaag¹,

Snijders²,

Flap³

2008

Social CapitalAn International Research Program

147

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“…The 1985, 1987, and 2010 GSS surveys were fielded in the spring and summer of nonpresidential election years. The 2004 GSS and 2000 ANES data were collected during presidential election years, though the 2000 ANES was collected after the election.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been repeatedly instrumented in network surveys and is believed to capture the core of one's interpersonal strong tie network (Burt 1984;Marsden 1987;McPherson et al 2006) despite a long history of criticism since its introduction in the 1985 GSS (Bailey and Marsden 1999;Bearman and Parigi 2004;Fischer 1982;Marin 2004;Paik and Sanchagrin 2013;Small 2013). Defenders have long noted that the network characteristics obtained through the "important matters" name generator do not significantly differ from those obtained from differently worded name generators such as "strong tie", "emotionally close tie," or "significant people" (Mollenhorst, Völker, and Flap 2008;Straits 2000).…”

Section: Did We Miss Big Historical Changes?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Important Matters in Political Context

Lee¹,

Bearman²

2017

SocScience

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Abstract:The 2004 General Social Survey (GSS) reported significant increases in social isolation and significant decreases in ego network size relative to previous periods. These results have been repeatedly challenged. Critics have argued that malfeasant interviewers, coding errors, or training effects lie behind these results. While each critique has some merit, none precisely identify the cause of decreased ego network size. In this article, we show that it matters that the 2004 GSS-unlike other GSS surveys-was fielded during a highly polarized election period. We find that the difference in network size between nonpartisan and partisan voters in the 2004 GSS is larger than in all other GSS surveys. We further discover that core discussion network size decreases precipitously in the period immediately around the first (2004) presidential debate, suggesting that the debate frames "important matters" as political matters. This political priming effect is stronger where geographic polarization is weaker and among those who are politically interested and talk about politics more often. Combined, these findings identify the specific mechanism for the reported decline in network size, indicate that inferences about increased social isolation in America arising from the 2004 GSS are unwarranted, and suggest the emergence of increased political isolation.

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Core Discussion Networks of Americans

Cited by 1,568 publications

References 18 publications

Motivation vs. relevance: Using strong ties to find a job in Urban China

Motivation vs. relevance: Using strong ties to find a job in Urban China

Position Generator Measures and Their Relationship to Other Social Capital Measures1

Important Matters in Political Context

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