Feld's theory on how networks form is based on a notion of foci in which people participate. These foci can be almost anything, from loosely bounded groups focused on neighborhoods, to the tight groupings of close families. Draw a network of about 20 variously interconnected people, using the notion of foci as the basis for your depiction. Think about how you want to use color, shape and size to represent the interests and circumstances that unite different people. How will you depict the people? Do you want to think about categorizing different types of foci - or depicting something about their strength, etc.? 

In this diagram, I have tried to show nine different foci of 19 networked people. Diamonds of nine different colors are used to connect individuals with common foci. The order of diamonds(outside to inside) is meant to depict the order of common dominance of foci in two individuals' lives. Line types denote the strength of the tie. The thick black line depicts strongest tie. The thin black line denotes intermediate tie. Grey thin line denotes weak tie and the dotted line represents absent ties.

Feld and Granovetter's papers, read together, present a model of how information flows within social networks. People with many heterogenous ties have access to a wide variety of information. while those with a small number of homogeneous ties have access to less information, but possible more social support (though Wellman suggests that this varies - and that some people with small, close-knit networks just end up providing a lot of support). Think about how information flows in the network you have drawn. Is it uniform or highly varied? Is it symmetric across links? How would you depict it?

As can be seen in the figure, the lowest common denominator, the red diamond for MIT produces some of the weakest ties. Most of the strong ties are the result of either two or more common foci (high multiplicity) or single focus of friendship and family (low mulitplicity but high time and emotional investment). These ties are less bridging as said by Granovetter. Most of the weak ties on the right side of the image can be said to be bridging, as most of these ties share only one common focus with each other and information flow is smoother. The left side of the figure has sub-networks with strong homogenous ties built on friendships. Here we clearly find that these substructures are left out of the information flow occuring at the center and on the right side of the figure. There is a pattern developing at the central node T that is contradictory to Granovetter 's and Feld's theories. Inspite of the node T sharing strong ties and many foci with other individuals, it appears to be in the center of all information flow and access.

 

 

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