A Structural Theory of Social Influence: (Series Number 13 Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences)

This book addresses a phenomenon that has been much studied in anthropology, sociology and administrative science - the social structural foundations of coordinated activity and consensus in complexly differentiated communities and organizations. Such foundations are important because social differentiation makes coordination and agreement especially hard to achieve and maintain. Friedkin focuses on the process of social influence, and on how this process, when it is played out in a network of interpersonal influence, may result in interpersonal agreements among actors who are located in different parts of a complexly differentiated organization. This work builds on structural role analysis which provides a description of the pattern of social differentiation in a population. Interpretation of the revealed social structures has long been a problem. The steps for structural analysis that are proposed in this book are addressed to the above problem. To explain the coordination of social positions, the author pursues the development of a structural social psychology that attends to both social structure and process.

Table of Contents:
List of tables and figures; Preface; Part A. Theory and Setting: 1. Social structure and social Control; 2. Toward a structural social psychology; 3. A setting in the scientific community; Part B. Measures of the Theoretical Constructs: 4. A structural parameterization; 5. Interpersonal influence; 6. Self and other; 7. Social positions; Part C. Analysis: 8. The structure of social space; 9. The production of consensus; 10. Influence of actors and social positions; 11. Durkheim's vision; References; Index.

Review :
"Friedkin's book engages a central problem in network analysis, that of showing that studies of the patterning of social relations can inform substantive research. In linking structure to outcomes, it bears on a much-publicized debate about the structural basis of social influence and attempts a productive integration of network measures with social psychological theories of influence. In so doing, Friedkin presents data on the interesting substantive case of relationships among scientists at important research institutions." Peter V. Marsden, Harvard University "It is a pleasure to review this monograph for the American Journal of Sociology, not only because of its high quality, but also because reviews of similar texts are getting hard to find." Stanley Wasserman, American Journal of Sociology "The work is well written and meticulously argued. Friedkin is a master of his craft, and he provides here an entree into network analysis that is important for organizational researchers." David Strang, Administrative Science Quarterly