Weak Ties in Networked Communities

Communities with high levels of social capital are likely to have a higher quality of life than communities with low social capital. This is due to the greater ability of such communities to organize and mobilize effectively for collective action because they have high levels of social trust, dense social networks, and well-established norms of mutuality (the major features of social capital). Communities with “bridging” social capital (weak ties across groups) as well as “bonding” social capital (strong ties within groups) are the most effective in organizing for collective action. People who belong to multiple groups act as bridging ties. When people with bridging ties use communication media, such as the Internet, they enhance their capability to educate community members and to organize, as needed, for collective action. This article summarizes evidence from stratified household survey data in Blacksburg, VA, showing that people with weak (bridging) ties across groups have higher levels of community involvement, civic interest, and collective efficacy than people without bridging ties among groups. Moreover, heavy Internet users with bridging ties have higher social engagement, use the Internet for social purposes, and have been attending more local meetings and events since going online than heavy Internet users with no bridging ties. These findings may suggest that the Internet—in the hands of bridging individuals–is a tool for enhancing social relations and information exchange, and for increasing face-to-face interaction, all of which help to build both bonding and bridging social capital in communities.     

‘Cast your net widely’: three steps to expanding and refining your problem before action learning application

This paper reflects upon a three-step process to expand the problem definition in the early stages of an action learning project. The process created a community-powered problem-solving approach within the action learning context. The simple three steps expanded upon in the paper create independence, dependence, and inter-dependence to aid the interaction of an action learning team as they uncovered the problem. The author recounts how his action learning project created steps of independence that captured divergent thoughts from throughout the organization; dependence that merged thoughts across the diverse group; and inter-dependence that built system thinking focused on horizontal impact across the organization. Readers can replicate the steps in future action learning projects to define the root cause problems before chasing the symptoms toward solutions. Project leaders who do not caste their nets widely during the problem definition stage may find their team solving the easy-to-catch symptoms.     

我眼中的世界想与你分享

两年前,一款名为《旅行青蛙》的放置类手机游戏曾风靡一时.游戏的主角是一只小青蛙,独自居住在石头小屋里.平时,小青蛙会在木桌边吃饭、写信、削木头,或者在阁楼上的被窝里看书、打盹,但它最大的爱好其实是出门旅行.大部分时间,小青蛙都在外游历,旅行的时长和地点是随机的,玩家通过它寄回来的明信片,看到它一路走过的风景、沿途同行的...     

Looking back to the future: Māori and Pakeha mother-child birth stories.

Māori adults have earlier first memories than adults in any culture studied to date. To test the role of early memory socialization in this advantage, Māori (n= 15) and New Zealand European (or Pakeha, n= 17) mothers told birth stories and stories of shared past events to their children (3-4 or 7-8 years). Compared to Pakeha mothers, Māori mothers elaborated more in the birth stories, relative to their elaborations in stories about shared past events, and included more references to relational time and internal states in their birth stories. These data provide the first empirical evidence that Māori children experience a richer narrative environment than Pakeha children for significant events in their past.