| A | B |
|---|
| Social capitol | The knowledge of people or things that helps individuals enter preexisting networks or gain power within them. |
| Robert Putnam and Social Capital | Putnam suggests that we are more loosely connected today; we experience less family togetherness, take fewer group vacations, and demonstrate less civic engagement. |
| Stanley Milgram | Performed a classic study on obedience to authority. He tested the lengths to which ordinary people would follow orders from a legitimate authority. Milgram is also known for studying the mechanics of social networks. He concluded that people in the US tend to be connected by approximately three friendship links. This is referred to as six degrees of separation. |
| Structural hole | A gap between network clusters, where a possible tie could become an actual tie or where an intermediary could control the communications between the two groups on either side of the hole. |
| Strength of weak ties | The fact that often relatively weak ties turn out to be quite valuable because they more often bring novel information |
| Embeddedness | The degree to which ties are reinforced through indirect paths within a social network. |
| Narrative | The sum of stories about a set of ties |
| Tie | A set of stories that explains our relationship to other members of a network. |
| Social network | A set of relations held together by ties between individuals. |
| Reference group | A group that helps one understand one’s position in society relative to other groups. |
| Out-group | A stigmatized, less powerful group and is usually the minority |
| In-group | Carries the most power and is most often the majority |
| Group conformity | Groups have strong influence over individual behavior. |
