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        <title>Connections Feed</title>
        <link>https://sciendo.com/journal/CONNECTIONS</link>
        <description>Sciendo RSS Feed for Connections</description>
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            <title>Connections Feed</title>
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            <link>https://sciendo.com/journal/CONNECTIONS</link>
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        <copyright>All rights reserved 2026, International Network for Social Network Analysis (INSNA)</copyright>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[The impact of changing personal relationship dynamics on quality of life throughout the UK COVID-19 lockdowns – a mixed methods study]]></title>
            <link>https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/connections-2025-0005</link>
            <guid>https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/connections-2025-0005</guid>
            <pubDate>Wed, 12 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[
            
            
               Background
               The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in multiple UK-wide lockdowns, which prevented individuals from meeting friends and family outside their confined households. Prior work suggests this sudden change in social relationship dynamics had a negative impact on mental and well-being outcomes throughout the pandemic. The present study aimed to characterise the influence of changing personal relationship dynamics upon change in life satisfaction within the context of the UK lockdowns.
            
            
               Method
               A longitudinal survey of two waves was distributed to UK individuals following the first and third UK lockdowns. Changes in personal relationships were operationalised as binary variables, and a life satisfaction index was created using the difference in life satisfaction between waves. Multiple linear regression was used to investigate the association between relationship deterioration, change, or improvement and life satisfaction index, controlling for gender and age. A thematic analysis was conducted on written responses to identify factors that may have impacted change in quality of life throughout the pandemic.
            
            
               Results
               Life satisfaction significantly decreased after the initial 2020 lockdown. Within individual survey waves, we observed significant associations between personal relationship dynamics and life satisfaction. No significant association was observed between relationship dynamics within confinement and life satisfaction index. Qualitative analysis identified ten themes that might have also affected life satisfaction change.
            
            
               Conclusion
               Improving personal relationships likely only had a minor impact on positive adaptation and overall quality of life during the pandemic. Future studies would benefit from a greater sample size, to allow the study of specific relationships’ impact on quality of life.
            
         ]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
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        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[My closest relationship is with “Yur Mama”: Data quality in the CHIP50 ego network module]]></title>
            <link>https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/connections-2025-0004</link>
            <guid>https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/connections-2025-0004</guid>
            <pubDate>Wed, 12 Nov 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[
            
            Data quality issues including problematic responses from non-human bots, malicious respondents, and uncareful respondents can threaten the validity of online survey-based network data. In this study, we describe how we identified and handled potentially problematic responses in the ego network module of the Civic Health and Institutions Project, a 50 States Survey (CHIP50-NET). Specifically, we identified and excluded 4,282 respondents who named non-agent alters or invalid alters or who provided inconsistent responses (17% of the sample). Excluding these potentially problematic respondents from the CHIP50-NET sample had only modest effects on sample demographics. However, these exclusions did yield a prevalence estimate of an uncommon demographic group (adults who do not want children) that was closer to a recent, external benchmark estimate, providing evidence of the validity of our data cleaning efforts. We conclude with implications and recommendations for using the CHIP50-NET dataset specifically, and for cleaning data when conducting large-scale online network surveys more generally.
         ]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Connecting the Dots: Linking Centrality Measures to Peer Perceptions in Elementary School Friendship Networks]]></title>
            <link>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.058</link>
            <guid>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.058</guid>
            <pubDate>Thu, 19 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[

This study integrates social network analysis (SNA) and peer nomination methods to examine the relationship between social network centrality and peer-nominated social functioning (e.g., “who do you like to play with the most”) in elementary school classrooms. Participants included 473 students (226 boys, 247 girls) from 26 classrooms in Grades 4 and 5. Four centrality measures (degree, betweenness, closeness, and eigenvector) were calculated from friendship nominations and compared with peer nominations for various social reputation indicators. Network analyses revealed consistent positive associations between centrality measures and “Like to Play with Most” nominations, with degree centrality showing the strongest connection. “Like to Play with Least” nominations displayed negative associations, particularly with betweenness and eigenvector centrality. “Leader” and “Admire” emerged as highly influential across networks, suggesting their importance in shaping classroom social dynamics. Shortest path analyses identified direct connections between centrality measures and who children “Like to Play with Most”, while other social reputation variables were often connected through intermediary steps. This study highlights the complex interplay between structural positions in social networks and peer perceptions of social functioning. These findings contribute to a more integrated understanding of children’s social experiences and development. By bridging SNA and child development research, this study provides insights for developing targeted interventions to support children’s social competence and peer relationships. Future research should explore longitudinal dynamics of social networks and reputations, consider additional data sources, and examine cross-cultural applicability. This study opens new avenues for research and practice aimed at fostering positive social and emotional development in elementary school settings.
]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Types of network-based interventions: a conceptual clarification]]></title>
            <link>https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/connections-2025-0002</link>
            <guid>https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/connections-2025-0002</guid>
            <pubDate>Thu, 19 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[
            
            The term “networks” is frequently used in the field of community intervention in a generic or metaphorical way, without necessarily referring to indicators based on graph theory. With the aim of contributing to greater conceptual clarification, in the first part of this article, we review five operational uses of network analysis in community intervention to evaluate social support resources, identify key players, monitor community coalitions, generate participatory dynamics, and improve program implementation. In the second part, we distinguish four uses of networks in the intervention, namely: preparatory, substantive, performative, and translation. I conclude by examining possible lines of research that could arise from the distinction between the use of networks or the modification of networks in the intervention.
         ]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Inpatient unit visibility, space use, and social networks of communication]]></title>
            <link>https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/connections-2025-0003</link>
            <guid>https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/connections-2025-0003</guid>
            <pubDate>Thu, 19 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[
            
            Care team communication is fundamental to most healthcare environments, but the dynamic ways that care team workers use space complicate knowing how to best design for communication in hospital spaces. This comparative case study of two inpatient units used floorplan-based measures of visibility, behavior mapping, and social network analysis to gain insight into the relationship of floorplan layout to care team social networks of communication. Greater unit visibility appears to create conditions for copresence that enhance care team communication.
         ]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Revisiting the culture–social structure duality debate through the lens of personal networks]]></title>
            <link>https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/connections-2025-0001</link>
            <guid>https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/connections-2025-0001</guid>
            <pubDate>Thu, 19 Jun 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[
            
            In this article, we address a long-standing debate in social science about whether culture or social structure provides the best lens for understanding human behavior and how that scales to the level of social institutions. We argue that the notion of personal networks offers new insights into this culture–social structure dualism. We demonstrate this by examining early human systems based on kinship and complex systems pointing to the research of anthropologists working in southern Africa who created the concept of personal networks as a necessary tool to understand newly emerging social systems under British colonial rule.
         ]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Harrison White’s Impact on the Field and the Hungarian Sociology, in a Personal Light]]></title>
            <link>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.047</link>
            <guid>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.047</guid>
            <pubDate>Fri, 30 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[

Paying tribute to the works of Harrison C White, this commemoration presents primarily some personal regards. It highlights moments like the two editions of Identity and Control or the revival of interest in the catnet concept as turning points significantly affecting the author’s conception of social networks with the mutual role of structural and cultural aspects. In addition, the paper briefly reviews the development of the impact of White’s oeuvre on the field in Hungary and recalls the impressions attached to the rare occasions of personal encounter.
]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[How Harrison White Refined and Redefined the Concept of Style]]></title>
            <link>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.049</link>
            <guid>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.049</guid>
            <pubDate>Fri, 30 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[

This article examines some key tenets of Harrison White’s concept of style. It starts with core insights from his magnum opus, Identity and Control, where style connects all other key concepts within his framework, and discusses its potential for sociological research (“so what?”). Positioned as a flexible yet structured tool, style helps sharpen the sociological eye. Notably, I recall memories of how I came to engage with the concept of style in my work with Harrison White, highlighting the role of style in shaping meaning, guiding network dynamics, and connecting social order and change.
]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Harrison White and Mathematical Sociology]]></title>
            <link>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.059</link>
            <guid>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.059</guid>
            <pubDate>Fri, 30 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Annealing as an Alternative Mechanism for Management]]></title>
            <link>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.062</link>
            <guid>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.062</guid>
            <pubDate>Fri, 30 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[

This paper examines annealing as a mechanism for inducing organizational change. Similar to a sword maker or glassworker transforming physical objects, a manager who anneals strategically shakes up a team with a sudden disruption and, after seeing favorable change, stabilizes the team in a realigned and improved structure. Annealing thus involves “lighting a fire” under colleagues, observing their adaptations, and eventually locking in the gains. Using the work of Harrison C. White as our foundation, we clarify the core features of annealing in contrast to routine management, discussing annealing as a strategic response to uncertainty that temporarily sacrifices equilibrium in search of a better state. Given our interest in when annealing is likely to damage, rather than benefit, those subjected to it, we also identify three conditions under which it fails or is harmful: the annealer lacks robust status, the annealed lacks emotional energy, and the wider environment presents an imbalanced mix of resources and uncertainty. Our discussion offers a window into when and how annealing can revitalize stagnant organizations or cause unintended harm. We conclude with questions for future research.
]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[The Positivism of Harrison White]]></title>
            <link>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.060</link>
            <guid>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.060</guid>
            <pubDate>Fri, 30 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[

Harrison White revolutionized our thinking about social networks with key concepts such as catnets and structural equivalence, stories and identities, domains and netdoms, styles and switchings, and disciplines and control regimes. This innovative conceptual architecture results from a particular mode of theory construction, following the playbook of logical positivism. In line with this approach from philosophy of science, White’s theory is empiricist—it aims at developing theoretical propositions that resonate with empirical evidence. It is logical in deriving major inspiration from mathematics. White rejects metaphysical arguments of grand theoretical schemes and speculations disconnected from empirical research. He also opposes normative and ideological arguments as unscientific. White’s theory focuses on observable theoretical constructs, avoiding theoretical terms for unobservables. And it by and large follows the strategy of induction: attaching concepts to observations and generalizing across them.
]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Reptation in Sociology]]></title>
            <link>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.050</link>
            <guid>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.050</guid>
            <pubDate>Fri, 30 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[

This article is a brief appraisal of Harrison C. White’s occasional but trenchant use of the concept of reptation, which is familiar from polymer research. The concept of reptation is placed in the context of Auguste Comte’s definition of the sociological problem of studying social phenomena in the coordinates of their statics and dynamics and linked to George Spencer-Brown’s calculus of form. The concept of reptation defines social phenomena as phenomena that gain their scope from restrictions recursively and reflectively set by themselves.
]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[The Two Sides of Harrison White]]></title>
            <link>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.053</link>
            <guid>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.053</guid>
            <pubDate>Fri, 30 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Harrison White and Unpleasant Ebullience]]></title>
            <link>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.054</link>
            <guid>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.054</guid>
            <pubDate>Fri, 30 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[

I first met Harrison White in 1970, during my initial year of graduate study and his first year as chair of Harvard’s newly-reconstituted Department of Sociology. I last visited with him on May 18, 2024, in Tucson, Arizona, the day before he passed away. Harrison has been my north star throughout my career. Our most intensive period in person together was the decade or so beginning in 1971, and that (along with some of Harrison’s earlier career) is the timeframe on which I’ll focus in these remarks.
]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Remembering Harrison White]]></title>
            <link>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.057</link>
            <guid>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.057</guid>
            <pubDate>Fri, 30 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Look for the Holes: An Intellectual and Personal Appreciation of Harrison White by a Student in the 1970s]]></title>
            <link>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.052</link>
            <guid>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.052</guid>
            <pubDate>Fri, 30 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Interview with Harrison C. White]]></title>
            <link>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.063</link>
            <guid>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.063</guid>
            <pubDate>Fri, 30 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Themed section in honor of Harrison C. White]]></title>
            <link>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.064</link>
            <guid>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.064</guid>
            <pubDate>Fri, 30 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Hacking at the Same Jungle]]></title>
            <link>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.056</link>
            <guid>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.056</guid>
            <pubDate>Fri, 30 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[

The work of Harrison White has been a source of personal energy and inspiration. In this brief paper, I reflect on the role that his work and his generous advice have played in my own work.
]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Harrison C. White’s Sociolinguistic Investigations: From Polymer Physics to Netdom Emergence via Indexical Language]]></title>
            <link>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.051</link>
            <guid>https://sciendo.com/article/10.21307/connections-2019.051</guid>
            <pubDate>Fri, 30 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
            <description><![CDATA[

Harrison C. White, a founding giant of the relational turn in American sociology, has produced some of the most influential tools in social network analysis, including vacancy chains, structural equivalence, and blockmodels. Moreover, he has left us a monumental theoretical model of social emergence based on the creative interplay of three axiomatic primitives (identity, control, and switching) and two principles (self-similarity and dispersion). In the 1990s, White recognized the limitations of formal network analysis in capturing social actors’ phenomenological switches across complex network shapes and temporalities. So he adopted the constitutive and reflexive capacities of language, more specifically Peircean indexicality, to theorize cultural meaning and context-making in networks. Language matters to networks because through reflexive switches of indexical markers (e.g., switching forms of address and informal vs standard registers), actors renegotiate and reshape, often unintentionally, their network topologies. In this essay honoring his extraordinary legacy, I focus on White’s sociolinguistic turn and our mutual collaboration on the indexical dimensions of language in networks, including metapragmatics, heteroglossia, and poetics. I then consider White’s influence on my ethnographic research via the metapragmatics of context-making and HIV risk-taking across sexual networks. I conclude that White got closer than anyone else to solving Nadel’s paradox. Attempts have been made to solve the paradox, but either context or mathematics gets lost in the process. White kept both in focus. In my view, it is because of White’s genius and original ideas that we can still, in the 21st century, believe in the scientific project of sociology.
]]></description>
            <category>ARTICLE</category>
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