Structure, Content, and Meaning of Organizational Networks: Extending Network Thinking, Introduction

Abstract

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Socio-semantic and other dualities

“…There, the interest in semantic networks in the 1990s brought together the perspectives and techniques of communication science, cognitive science and sociolinguistics in a movement known as formal analysis of culture. Led by John Mohr (1994Mohr ( , 1998Mohr ( , 2000 (see also Kirchner and Mohr, 2010;Ferguson, Groenewegen, Moser, Borgatti and Mohr, 2017;Edelmann and Mohr, 2018), this movement is largely responsible for the growing popularity of semantic network analysis in sociology nowadays Kozlowski, Taddy and Evans, 2019). Formal analysts approach culture as "relations rather individual elements and the patterns arising in these" (Edelmann and Mohr, 2018: 3) and aim at theorizing cultural mechanisms and applying formal methods to cultural data in search of the corresponding cultural patterns.…”

Ideas with impact: How connectivity shapes idea diffusion

“…We specifically complement these earlier studies by examining the connectivity of an idea in a content network. Scholars increasingly pay attention to how meaning is conveyed in networks (Ferguson et al, 2017) and in particular to the language and vocabulary that is used to express ideas (Moser et al, 2017;Van Atteveldt, Moser, and Welbers, 2017). Whether an idea is novel or not is believed to be reflected in the description of that idea.…”

An Integrated Framework for Studying How Schools Respond to External Pressures

“…In the broader organizational literature, there has been a growing effort in recent years to understand the role of culture and meaning in organizational network processes (Ferguson et al, 2017). Although social network analysis recognizes the importance of the structural connections between actors for explaining organizational phenomena, it has historically ignored the cultural content of those ties.…”