Our journal article discussion examines social network structures and some of their characteristics. We look at the merits of brokerage versus closure as a chosen structure, and whether these structures reveal patterns in the accumulation of social capital and overall network performance. Within these structures, betweenness and constraint tendencies also give us a look at how the interconnectedness (or lack thereof) relates to social network participation, social capital, and performance. We cover two brief case studies to tie these concepts back to real life practice.
This was a complicated theory to digest, but it helped me understand the complexity of connections between networks, and connections between those connected networks and other connected networks. The details of brokerage versus closure are still confusing to me, but I feel I better understand the overall picture of how these networks function with one another and within one another.