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Social roles and the evolution of networks in extreme and isolated environments (2003)
| Venue: | Journal of Mathematical Sociology |
| Citations: | 12 - 0 self |
BibTeX
@ARTICLE{Johnson03socialroles,
author = {Jeffrey C. Johnson and James S. Boster and Lawrence Palinkas},
title = {Social roles and the evolution of networks in extreme and isolated environments},
journal = {Journal of Mathematical Sociology},
year = {2003},
pages = {89--121}
}
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Abstract
This article reports on the evolution of network structure as it relates to formal and informal social roles in well-bounded, isolated groups. Research was conducted at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Data was collected on crewmembers ’ networks of social interaction over each of three winter-over periods, when the station is completely isolated. In addition, data was collected on the informal roles played by crewmembers (e.g., instrumental leadership, expressive leadership). The study found that globally coherent networks in winter-over groups were associated with group consensus on the presence of critically important informal social roles (e.g., expressive leadership) where global coherence is the extent to which a network forms a single group composed of a unitary core and periphery as opposed to being factionalized into two or more subgroups. Conversely, the evolution of multiple subgroups was associated with the absence of consensus on critical informal social roles, above all the critically important role of instrumental leader.
Keyphrases
social role isolated environment expressive leadership important role winter-over group important informal social role instrumental leadership global coherence coherent network group consensus crewmembers network multiple subgroup single group critical informal social role instrumental leader unitary core isolated group winter-over period network structure amundsen-scott south pole station informal role social interaction
