(1979). Social Networks and Psychology. Connections, 2 - INSNA

- 64 -sources of information are . (2) I am attempting an interorganizational study of community mental healthfacilities . Specifically, I am interested in how the services in the community operate (or do not operate)as a service network for former mental patients . I am not only interested in how individual mental patientsget hooked into the network, but also how different individuals and professionals within the serviceagencies are connected to each other . In other words, I am interested in who knows who in the mental healthnetwork in Oklahoma City, how information in transmitted through the network, and how referrals are made fromone agency to the other . (3) I am also interested in investigating some of the dominant community attitudestoward mental patients living in urban neighbourhoods . In this context, I am specifically concerned withthe differences between attitudes held by people in neighborhoods that have high concentrations of formermental patients and neighborhoods where no mental patients live . In this sense, I am hoping to test thehypothesis that acceptance of mental illness is inversely related to the distance individuals are able tokeep between themselves and any manifestation of mental illness .I am interested in hearing from anyone who is interested in any of these topics, and who would like tohear more about what I plan to do . It would be especially useful, however, to hear from people who had somesuggestions to make about how I might proceed in any of these areas . I am, of course, concerned to locateand hear about other studies that have been done in these areas, and to obtain guidance from individualswho might be experts in the field . I am currently at the pilot stage, searching through the literatureand devising methodologies, so I would be very appreciative of any help that other Network members couldprovide ."MomHelp Wanted:AdviceonScaling Social Support :"I am presently working on a longitudinal study investigating life stress and illness . We have developeda scale in order to measure the mediating influence of the social support network . To describe briefly,the respondent is asked to list individuals with whom he or she has discussions relating to potentiallystressful areas of social functioning (i .e . home and family) . Also the relationship, helpfulness andreciprocity are recorded for each listed individual . In addition, we ask about the respondent's networkof key figures . I have been considering the appropriateness of our scale for network analysis . Could youplease direct me to a person who could give some advice and direction concerning our scale and networkanalysis?" Deborah Scott, McMaster University, Life Events Study, 3H, 1200 Main Street West, Hamilton,Ontario, Canada, L8S 4J9 .What Use is Network Analysis?A Comment from our Peripatetic Editor : (Barry WeZZman)"At a chic Wassenaar cocktail party the other week, I was challenged to defend the intellectualusefulness of network analysis . My first sally was that "it enables us to frame important new questions"--thinking here of White's Chains of Opportunity, small world studies and such-- but an ethnomethodologist inthe crowd retorted that anybody can invent new questions . I went on to point out all the new techniquesfor measuring and modelling aspects of social structure--from density - knitting to block-modelling--andfor gathering data in new ways -- such as British and North American attempts to get at non-local, nonsolidary,non-tribal networks .But this didn't satisfy my interlocutors . "Mere fiddling!" One philosopher of science agreed to letme off the hook only if I could show examples of where network folk have gone head-to-head with other modesof analysis and come up with more powerful analyses . A few favorite examples immediately came to mind :(1) The studies of contentions for power and collective violence by Charles Tilly and others have clearlyrun the mass society/relative deprivation psychologistic enthusiasts "out of the rink", as we say in Canada(see Tilly's updated review article in the forthcoming revised edition of Violence in America, edited byGraham and Gurr) (2) African and Indian studies (e .g . Leslie Howard) of third world rural-urban migrantshave greatly shaken the"attitude change as a cause of modernization perspective . (3) The whole corpus ofrelations between countries--or between interest groups within and across countries--which started at thetime of Gunder Frank and others' formulation of "dependency theory" and has now moved beyond that in thework of such as Immanuel Wallerstein and Harriet Friedmann .But surely there must be others who didn't leap immediately to mind under the influence of such fiercequestioning . So I pass the buck to you . Please send Connections statements of comparative network andnon-network explanations of similar phenomena (with as full citations as possible) . Modest authors, whoforebear to cite themselves, can be assured of anonymity as to the source ."Social Change and Collective ActionRecent papers from the Center for Research on Social Organization, 330 Packard Street, University ofMichigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 48104, U .S .A . (Our thanks to Quantum for this compilation) . Reports havea minimum fee of 50 cents, with a rate of roughly 1 cent per page for longer reports .John Boyd, R .A . Schweitzer and Charles Tilly . 1978 . "British Contentious Gatherings of 1828" . CRSOWorking Paper 171 .Oliver Carsten . 1977 . "Work and the Lodge : Fraternalism in Meriden and New Britain, Connecticut,"CRSO Working Paper 157 .