American Journal of Sociology 115(4)

Six Degrees of “Who Cares?”
Rick Grannis

The concept that we live in small world networks connected by short paths has proved fascinating. These networks, however, do not typically emerge as linear responses to individual-level changes; rather, subtle changes in relations produce extraordinarily different macrolevel outcomes. Similarly, nuances in how we conceptualize, define, and measure relations can lead to widely different network characterizations. The author demonstrates this variability using a spectrum of interaction types and argue that the dependence of results on subtleties in definition or measurement makes theoretical interpretation difficult. He offers an index to calculate how much inaccuracy or imprecision relational definitions or data-gathering techniques can tolerate before results yield utterly different interpretations.

The Social Structure of the World Polity
Jason Beckfield

World polity research argues that modern states are shaped by embeddedness in a network of international organizations, and yet the structure of that network is rarely examined. This is surprising, given that world polity theory implies that the world polity should be an increasingly dense, even, flat field of association. This article describes the social structure of the world polity, using network analysis of the complete population of intergovernmental organizations as it has evolved since 1820. Analysis of the world polity's structure reveals growing fragmentation, driven by exclusive rather than universalist intergovernmental organizations. The world polity has thus grown less cohesive, more fragmented, more heterogeneous, and less “small worldly” in its structure. This structure reflects a recent rise in the regionalization of the world polity.

Global Neighborhoods: New Pathways to Diversity and Separation
John R. Logan and Charles Zhang

Analyses of neighborhood racial composition in 1980–2000 demonstrate that in multiethnic metropolitan regions there is an emerging pathway of change that leads to relatively stable integration These are “global neighborhoods” where Hispanics and Asians are the pioneer integrators of previously all-white zones, later followed by blacks. However, region-wide segregation is maintained at high levels by whites' avoidance of all-minority areas and by their continued exodus (albeit at reduced levels) from mixed settings. Globalization of neighborhoods adds a positive new element of diversity that alters but does not erase the traditional dynamic of minority invasion succession.

Interneighborhood Migration, Race, and Environmental Hazards: Modeling Microlevel Processes of Environmental Inequality
Kyle Crowder and Liam Downey

This study combines longitudinal individual-level data with neighborhood-level industrial hazard data to examine the extent and sources of environmental inequality. Results indicate that profound racial and ethnic differences in proximity to industrial pollution persist when differences in individual education, household income, and other microlevel characteristics are controlled. Examination of underlying migration patterns further reveals that black and Latino householders move into neighborhoods with significantly higher hazard levels than do comparable whites and that racial differences in proximity to neighborhood pollution are maintained more by these disparate mobility destinations than by differential effects of pollution on the decision to move.

Structural Folds: Generative Disruption in Overlapping Groups
Balázs Vedres and David Stark

Entrepreneurial groups face a twinned challenge: recognizing and implementing new ideas. We argue that entrepreneurship is less about importing ideas than about generating new knowledge by recombining resources. In contrast to the brokerage-plus-closure perspective, we address the overlapping of cohesive group structures. In analyzing the network processes of intercohesion, we identify a distinctive network topology: the structural fold. Actors at the structural fold are multiple insiders, facilitating familiar access to diverse resources. Our data set records personnel ties among the largest 1,696 Hungarian enterprises from 1987 to 2001. First, we test whether structural folding contributes to group performance. Second, because entrepreneurship is a process of generative disruption, we test the contribution of structural folds to group instability. Third, we move from dynamic methods to historical network analysis and demonstrate that coherence is a property of interwoven lineages of cohesion, built up through repeated separation and reunification.

Leadership, Membership, and Voice: Civic Associations That Work
Kenneth T. Andrews, Marshall Ganz, Matthew Baggetta, Hahrie Han, and Chaeyoon Lim

Why are some civic associations more effective than others? The authors introduce a multidimensional framework for analyzing the effectiveness of civic associations in terms of public recognition, member engagement, and leader development. Using original surveys of local Sierra Club organizations and leaders, the authors assess prevailing explanations in organization and movement studies alongside a model highlighting leadership and internal organizational practices. Although available resources and favorable contexts matter, the core findings show that associations with more committed activists, that build organizational capacity, that carry out strong programmatic activity, and whose leaders work independently, generate greater effectiveness across outcomes.

American Journal of Sociology, January 2010: Volume 115, Issue 4