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Mark Granovetter is a sociologist who gave some of the most influential theories in modern sociology, since the 1970s. He is most known for his insightful theory of the spread of information in a community known as The strength of weak ties, (1973).
Insights in Sociology
The Strength of Weak Ties
Granovetter is an American sociologist (PhD Harvard, currently at Stanford), who is famous primarily for his work in networks theory and in economic sociology. His most famous work in networks theory can be found in an article called "The strength of weak ties" (the reader may also want to consult the related monograph "Getting A Job"). The basic argument is that your relationship to family members and close friends ("strong ties") will not supply you with as much diversity of knowledge as your relationship to acquantancies, distant friends and the like ("weak ties"). In economic sociology Granovetter has been a leader ever since the publication in 1985 of an article that launched "new economic sociology". Granovetter has also helped to develop Thomas Schelling's idea of tipping points; he is currently working on a major treatise called "Society and Economy".
Embeddedness in Economic Sociology
He is also identified with the concept of embeddedness. This is the idea that economic relations between individuals or firms are embedded in actual social networks and do not exist in an abstract idealized market.
Other Related Ideas
He considered, among other things, a model of how fads are created. Consider a hypothetical mob assuming that each person's decision whether to riot or not is dependent on what everyone else is doing. Instigators will begin rioting even if no one else is, while others need to see a critical number of trouble makers before they riot, too. This threshold is assumed to be distributed to some probability distribution. The fascinating thing is that the outcomes may diverge largely although the initial condition of threshold may only differ very slightly. This threshold model of social behaviour was popularised by Malcolm Gladwell's book The Tipping Point.
Related Works
The concept of Capability-based security is well modelled using the Granovetter model. Evidence can be found in Capability Myths Demolished and erights. Wherein, it is shown to be superior in expressiveness to other models based on Lampson's access matrixProtection, and the copyable unforgeable keys model.
Selected works
- Granovetter, Mark;(1973)"The Strength of Weak Ties"; American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 78, No. 6., May 1973, pp 1360-1380
- Granovetter, Mark;(1974)"Getting A Job: A Study of Contacts and Careers"
- Granovetter, Mark;(1978)"Threshold Models of Collective Behavior"; American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 83, No. 6, November 1978, pp 1420-1443
- Granovetter, Mark;(1985)"Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness"; American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 91, No. 3., November 1985, pp 481-510
See also:
External links
- Strength of Weak Ties (PDF)
- http://www.inequality.com/people/bios/granovetter.shtml
- http://www.stanford.edu/dept/soc/people/faculty/granovetter/granovet.html
- http://www.leader-values.com/Content/detail.asp?ContentDetailID=990
"Mark Granovetter"