Gallowglass

Small world sociology

Kieran Healy has blogged a few times about the sociology of small world networks, most recently doing a post on how Irish people sniff out each other’s family and social connections within 2 pints (at most) of their first meeting. Eszter Hargittai reaches similar conclusions about network theorists working on power-law issues: a vastly disproportionate number of them are (like Eszter herself) of Hungarian origin. Now there’s a new blog, Political Aims, which is written by two Ph.D. students in Princeton’s sociology department, of which Kieran is a recent graduate, and where Eszter too is doing her doctorate. It’s interesting that we have four bloggers from the same Department, given the relative dearth of scholar-bloggers out there; one may reasonably suspect that small world connections of some sort or another are at play.