This article describes the structure of the adolescent romantic and sexual network in a population of over 800 adolescents residing in a midsized town in the midwestern United States. Precise images and measures of network structure are derived from reports of relationships that occurred over a period of 18 months between 1993 and 1995. The study offers a comparison of the structural characteristics of the observed network to simulated networks conditioned on the distribution of ties; the observed structure reveals networks characterized by longer contact chains and fewer cycles than expected. This article identifies the micromechanisms that generate networks with structural features similar to the observed network. Implications for disease transmission dynamics and social policy are explored.

Although sociologists have frequently touched on ideas related to brokerage in their research, brokerage is rarely considered a central concept in the discipline's theoretical or analytic arsenal. Theoretically, brokerage is one of a small number of mechanisms by which disconnected or isolated individuals (or groups) can interact economically, politically, and socially. Across substantive domains, we are particularly struck by a dual aspect of brokerage: On the one hand, brokerage has the capacity to ease social interaction, enhance economic activity, and facilitate political development. On the other hand, brokerage often breeds exploitation, the pursuit of personal profit, corruption, and the accumulation of power; through these and other processes, brokerage can exacerbate existing inequalities. In this review, we make the case for elevating the concept of brokerage to a more prominent place in the sociological canon. Brokerage's significance stems from its potential for macro-level consequences, which are revealed primarily through its impact on the permeability of group boundaries. However, because brokerage is built from informal, personal relationships, understanding it requires close attention to micro-level relations and social psychological processes.

Political science is fascinated with networks. This fascination builds on networks' descriptive appeal, and descriptions of networks play a prominent role in recent forays into network analysis. For some time, quantitative research has included node-level measures of network characteristics in standard regression models, thereby incorporating network concepts into familiar models. This approach represents an early advance for the literature but may (a) ignore fundamental theoretical contributions that can be found in a more structurally oriented network perspective, (b) focus attention on superficial aspects of networks as they feed into empirical work, and (c) present the network perspective as a slight tweak to standard models that assume complete independence of all relevant actors. We argue that network analysis is more than a tweak to the status quo ante; rather, it offers a means of addressing one of the holy grails of the social sciences: effectively analyzing the interdependence and flows of influence among individuals, groups, and institutions.

Optimal matching algorithms are used to model the transformation of career systems in a large British bank (Lloyds) from 1890 to 1970. The authors first model the breakdown of the traditional ascriptive, status-based system, and then identify a more dynamic, achievement-based system as its replacement. By relating the structure of careers to organizational growth and social change, the authors explore how the modern achievement career came about. More broadly, they argue that optimal matching enables one to see clearly the multiple time frames that are necessarily intercalated into career systems and hence provides new insights into the discontinuous and contingent nature of organizational change.

This article illustrates a strategy for representing and analyzing narratives as networks. The strategy that we use considers narrative sequences as networks. Elements are treated as nodes which are connected by narrative clauses, represented by arcs. By representing complex event sequences as networks, inducing 'narrative networks', it is possible to observe and measure new structural features of narratives. The narratives we focus on are autobiographical accounts of becoming, and being, a Nazi. The substantive idea that we develop in this article is that the observable narrative structure of life stories can provide insight into the process of identity formation. We illustrate our approach to narrative networks by analyzing a single story that, in conjunction with the analysis of other stories, yields a set of insights into becoming and being.

Adolescents who use condoms at their sexual debut do not report more sexual partners, are more likely to engage in subsequent protective behaviors, and experience fewer sexually transmitted infections than do adolescents who do not use condoms at their sexual debut.

Examined the adaptation of mothers and fathers of children with juvenile rheumatic disease on two occasions, 1 year apart, using 159 married couples at Time 1, and 111 of these couples at Time 2. A stress and coping model was tested in which parental functioning is determined by ongoing life stressors (patient and spouse dysfunction), family resources, and parents' illness-related coping. Mothers reported more depression than fathers did. However, poorer concurrent functioning among both mothers and fathers was explained partly by patients having more functional disability, pain, and psychosocial problems. In addition, spouse's dysfunction and the parent's use of avoidance coping were related to poorer parental adaptation, both concurrently and 1 year later. The implications of the findings for developing stress and coping models of parental adaptation to having a chronically ill child, and for intervention strategies with parents, patients, and families, are discussed.

A variety of social and economic arrangements exist to facilitate the exchange of goods, services, and information over gaps in social structure. Each of these arrangements bears some relationship to the idea of brokerage, but this brokerage is rarely like the pure and formal economic intermediation seen in some modern markets. Indeed, for reasons illuminated by existing sociological and economic models, brokerage is a fragile relationship. In this paper, we review the causes of instability in brokerage and identify three social mechanisms that can stabilize fragile brokerage relationships: social isolation, broker capture, and organizational grafting. Each of these mechanisms rests on the emergence or existence of supporting institutions. We suggest that organizational grafting may be the most stable and effective resolution to the tensions inherent in brokerage, but it is also the most institutionally demanding.networks | trade | brokers B rokers frequently play a critical role in facilitating the movement of goods and information. Demand for brokers who connect otherwise unconnected parties is particularly strong in settings where information is scarce or difficult to interpret, transactions are rare or complex, or the institutional environment supporting exchange is poorly developed. However, the broker's position is inherently weak, because the relational and informational conditions that stimulate demand for brokerage may simultaneously undermine other actors' confidence in the broker. Hence, brokerage is a fragile relation. Based on the empirical literature in a wide variety of fields, we observe that, despite brokers' structural liabilities, brokerage relationships can be stabilized in durable forms that encourage trade even when generalized trust is low or property rights are poorly enforced. The general solution to stabilizing brokerage is the recruitment of supporting social institutions that, in one way or another, enhance actors' confidence in the broker's future behavior. The first aim of this paper is to review the economic and sociological sources of brokers' weakness. We then identify and discuss three analytically distinct social arrangements that can stabilize brokerage relationships into more durable institutions: social isolation, broker capture, and organizational grafting. Each of these mechanisms depends on the emergence or existence of institutions that reduce uncertainty. What Is a Broker?Before reviewing why brokerage is a fragile relation, we must ask, what is a broker? The simple answer is that brokers trade over gaps in social structure (1-3). Unlike patrons, true brokers do not put their own resources at risk; rather, they have access to resources that are embedded in other persons, positions, or groups (4).* More formally, we can define brokers as intermediary links in systems of social, economic, or political relations who facilitate trade or transmission of valued resources that would otherwise be substantially more difficult. The crucial characteristics of brokers are that they...