Book contents
- Personal Networks
- Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences
- Personal Networks
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- I Background
- II Early Foundations
- III Later Foundations
- 8 From Claude S. Fischer, To Dwell among Friends
- From the Northern California Community Study, 1977–1978, to the University of California, Berkeley, Social Networks Project, 2015–2020
- 9 From Mark S. Granovetter, “The Strength of Weak Ties”
- Strength of Weak Ties in the Labor Market: An Assessment of the State of Research
- 10 From Barry Wellman and Scot Wortley, “Different Strokes from Different Folks”
- A Network Pilgrim’s Progress: Twenty-Six Realizations in Fifty-Five Years
- 11 From James S. Coleman, “Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital”
- Three Decades of Research into Social Capital: Achievements, Blind Spots, and Future Directions
- 12 From Bernice A. Pescosolido, “Beyond Rational Choice”
- Confronting How People Cope with Crisis: From the Social Organization Strategy Framework to the Network Episode Model to the Network Embedded Symbiome
- 13 From Scott L. Feld, “The Focused Organization of Social Ties”
- Reflections on “The Focused Organization of Social Ties” and its Implications for Bonding and Bridging
- 14 From Ronald S. Burt, Structural Holes
- Structural Holes Capstone, Cautions, and Enthusiasms
- 15 From Edward O. Laumann, Peter V. Marsden, and David Prensky, “The Boundary Specification Problem in Network Analysis”
- On the Boundary Specification Problem in Network Analysis: An Update and Extension to Personal Social Networks
- 16 From Miller McPherson, Lynn Smith-Lovin, and James M. Cook, “Birds of a Feather”
- The Enormous Flock of Homophily Researchers: Assessing and Promoting a Research Agenda
- 17 From Robert Huckfeldt and John Sprague, “Networks in Context”
- Individuals, Groups, and Networks: Implications for the Study and Practice of Democratic Politics
- 18 From Nan Lin, “Building a Network Theory of Social Capital”
- Social Capital: An Update
- 19 On the General Social Survey
- IV New Perspectives
- Index
- Recent Books in the Series
- References
16 - From Miller McPherson, Lynn Smith-Lovin, and James M. Cook, “Birds of a Feather”
from III - Later Foundations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 October 2021
Book contents
- Personal Networks
- Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences
- Personal Networks
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- I Background
- II Early Foundations
- III Later Foundations
- 8 From Claude S. Fischer, To Dwell among Friends
- From the Northern California Community Study, 1977–1978, to the University of California, Berkeley, Social Networks Project, 2015–2020
- 9 From Mark S. Granovetter, “The Strength of Weak Ties”
- Strength of Weak Ties in the Labor Market: An Assessment of the State of Research
- 10 From Barry Wellman and Scot Wortley, “Different Strokes from Different Folks”
- A Network Pilgrim’s Progress: Twenty-Six Realizations in Fifty-Five Years
- 11 From James S. Coleman, “Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital”
- Three Decades of Research into Social Capital: Achievements, Blind Spots, and Future Directions
- 12 From Bernice A. Pescosolido, “Beyond Rational Choice”
- Confronting How People Cope with Crisis: From the Social Organization Strategy Framework to the Network Episode Model to the Network Embedded Symbiome
- 13 From Scott L. Feld, “The Focused Organization of Social Ties”
- Reflections on “The Focused Organization of Social Ties” and its Implications for Bonding and Bridging
- 14 From Ronald S. Burt, Structural Holes
- Structural Holes Capstone, Cautions, and Enthusiasms
- 15 From Edward O. Laumann, Peter V. Marsden, and David Prensky, “The Boundary Specification Problem in Network Analysis”
- On the Boundary Specification Problem in Network Analysis: An Update and Extension to Personal Social Networks
- 16 From Miller McPherson, Lynn Smith-Lovin, and James M. Cook, “Birds of a Feather”
- The Enormous Flock of Homophily Researchers: Assessing and Promoting a Research Agenda
- 17 From Robert Huckfeldt and John Sprague, “Networks in Context”
- Individuals, Groups, and Networks: Implications for the Study and Practice of Democratic Politics
- 18 From Nan Lin, “Building a Network Theory of Social Capital”
- Social Capital: An Update
- 19 On the General Social Survey
- IV New Perspectives
- Index
- Recent Books in the Series
- References
Summary
Homophily is the higher probability of connection between similar as opposed to dissimilar entities. It is a property of social systems. It is not a synonym for “similarity” or “interpersonal liking for similar others.” In this chapter, we review the steady growth in the homophily literature citing “Birds of a Feather Flock Together“ (McPherson, Smith-Lovin, and Cook 2001). We argue that homophily has law-like properties spanning empirical domains, allowing its incorporation into a wide array of research streams across and even outside the social sciences. While we are encouraged to see an important sociological concept gain wide acceptance, we urge researchers to return to its social structural roots. Homophily is fundamentally a concept created to better understand structuration processes at various level of analysis, from interactions to organizations and beyond. We advocate a research agenda we hope will integrate homophily research through a dynamic view of social structure. We point to how new data sources and methods are poised to help bring greater integration to the enormous flock of homophily researchers.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Personal NetworksClassic Readings and New Directions in Egocentric Analysis, pp. 444 - 458Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021
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