Network centralities, demographic disparities, and voluntary participation

Qiang Fu; Yanlong Zhang; Yushu Zhu; Ting Li

doi:10.3934/mfc.2020011

Article Contents

2020, Volume 3, Issue 4: 249-262. Doi: 10.3934/mfc.2020011

This issue Previous Article Inpainting via sparse recovery with directional constraints Next Article Modeling interactive components by coordinate kernel polynomial models

Network centralities, demographic disparities, and voluntary participation

1.
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z1, Canada
2.
Associate Professor, Guanghua School of Management, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China
3.
Assistant Professor, Urban Studies Program and School of Public Policy, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC, V6B 5K3, Canada
4.
Associate Professor, Center for Population and Development Studies, Renmin University, Beijing, 100872, China

^* Corresponding author: Qiang Fu
^* Corresponding author: Qiang Fu

Received: October 2019

Revised: March 2020

Early access: June 2020

Published: November 2020

The first author is supported by The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

Abstract / Introduction Full Text(HTML) Figure(5) / Table(2) Related Papers Cited by

Abstract

This article explores racial and gender disparities in civic-network centrality using various social network methods and regression models. We find that civic networks of women and whites exhibit greater network centrality than their counterparts do. Religious organizations are the hub of civic networks, while labor unions and ethnic/civil-rights organizations are more peripheral. Whites tend to have job-related and nondomestic organizations as the core of their civic network. Women rely on domestic organizations and show little advantage over men in overlapping memberships of voluntary associations. These findings provide a more holistic view of racial and gender disparities in social networks.

Keywords:

Mathematics Subject Classification: Primary: 91D30, 62P25; Secondary: 91C20.

Citation:

Full Text(HTML)

Figure 1. Bonacich power centrality scores for civic networks by gender

Download: Full-size image PowerPoint slide

Figure 2. Bonacich power centrality scores for civic networks by race

Download: Full-size image PowerPoint slide

Figure 3. The civic network connected by overlapping memberships

Download: Full-size image PowerPoint slide

Figure 4. Multi-dimensional scaling solution of civic networks by gender

Download: Full-size image PowerPoint slide

Figure 5. Multi-dimensional scaling solution of civic networks by race

Download: Full-size image PowerPoint slide

Table 1. Membership percentages of nine types of organizations and degree centralization

Organization type	Membership percentages
	All	Male	Female	Whites	Blacks	Latinos
Religious groups	38%	34%	42%	42%	40%	25%
Charities	25%	23%	27%	27%	28%	15%
School and PTA	24%	17%	31%	25%	32%	21%
Professional organizations	23%	24%	22%	26%	19%	11%
Political parties	23%	23%	22%	26%	17%	11%
Leisure and sports groups	22%	25%	19%	24%	16%	13%
Neighborhood organizations	13%	13%	13%	13%	19%	8%
Labor unions	12%	15%	9%	12%	17%	6%
Ethnic/civil rights	3%	4%	3%	2%	9%	3%
Freeman degree centrality		23.56	27.27	26.1	25.01	25.28
Network heterogeneity		1.59	2.18	2.24	0.92	1.77

| Show Table

DownLoad: CSV

Table 2. Results from multinomial logistic regression, Poisson regression and negative-binomial regression on voluntary-organization memberships (N = 2, 456)

	Poisson regression		Negative-binomial regression		Multinomial regression
		Zero-inflation		Zero-inflation	Domes. & Non.	Domes. & work	Non. & work
	Coeff.	Coeff.	Coeff.	Coeff.	Coeff.	Coeff.	Coeff.
Whites (ref: Latinos)	0.176**	0.076	0.179**	0.078	0.454**	0.902**	0.151
Blacks (ref: Latinos)	0.329***	0.205*	0.337***	0.208*	0.26	1.355***	-0.097
Female (ref: male)	0.069*	0.04	0.069*	0.039	-0.067	0.242	-0.266
Married	0.149***	0.081*	0.152***	0.083*	0.277**	0.301	0.117
Age	0.006***	0.006**	0.006***	0.006**	0.008	0.015*	0.007
Education c	0.223***	0.152***	0.224***	0.153***	0.479***	0.647***	0.747***
Religious affiliation	0.274***	0.214***	0.269***	0.217***	0.396**	0.366	-0.603*
Perceived social class	0.141***	0.164***	0.142***	0.166***	0.431***	0.335***	0.244
Annual income	0.007**	0.003	0.007**	0.003	0.017*	0.024*	0.045*
Constant	-2.094***	-1.314***	-2.110***	-1.345***	-6.286***	-9.322***	-9.034***
Chi square	492.26***	245.73***	467.43***	237.72***	357.07***
Pseudo R2	0.072		0.052		0.089
Alpha			0.144	0.017
Vuong test		5.84***		4.70***

| Show Table

DownLoad: CSV

Related Papers

Cited by

References

[1]	G. Almgren, M. Magarati and L. Mogford, Examining the influences of gender, race, ethnicity, and social capital on the subjective health of adolescents, J. Adolesc., 32 (2009), 109-133. doi: 10.1016/j.adolescence.2007.11.003.
[2]	A. F. Aveni, Organizational linkages and resource moblization: The significance of linkage strength and breadth, The Sociological Quarterly, 19 (1978), 185-202. doi: 10.1111/j.1533-8525.1978.tb01164.x.
[3]	D. Baldassarri and M. Diani, The integrative power of civic networks, American Journal of Sociology, 113 (2007), 735-780. doi: 10.1086/521839.
[4]	K. Beyerlein and J. R. Hipp, From pews to participation: The effect of congregation activity and context on bridging civic engagement, Social Problems, 53 (2006), 97-117.
[5]	S. P. Borgatti, M. G. Everett and L. C. Freeman, Ucinet 6 for Windows: Software for Social Network Analysis, Analytic Technologies, Cambridge, MA, 2002.
[6]	H. E. Brady, S. Verba and K. L. Schlozman, Beyond ses: A resource model of political participation, American Political Science Review, 89 (1995), 271-294. doi: 10.2307/2082425.
[7]	R. L. Breiger, The duality of persons and groups, Social Forces, 53 (1974), 181-190. doi: 10.2307/2576011.
[8]	C. Buchmann, T. A. DiPrete and A. McDaniel, Gender inequalities in education, Annual Review Sociolology, 34 (2008), 319-337. doi: 10.1146/annurev.soc.34.040507.134719.
[9]	W. K. Carroll and R. S. Ratner, Master framing and cross-movement networking in contemporary social movements, The Sociological Quarterly, 37 (1996), 601-625.
[10]	H. Coffe and B. Geys, Measuring the bridging nature of voluntary organizations: The importance of association size, Sociology, 42 (2008), 357-369. doi: 10.1177/0038038507087359.
[11]	J. S. Coleman, Introduction to Mathematical Sociology, Free Press, New York, 1964.
[12]	B. Cornwell and J. A. Harrison, Union members and voluntary associations: Membership overlap as a case of organizational embeddedness, American Sociological Review, 69 (2004), 862-881.
[13]	M. Diani, Leaders or brokers, in Social Movements and Networks, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2003,105–122. doi: 10.1093/0199251789.001.0001.
[14]	C. S. Fischer, On urban alienations and anomie: Powerlessness and social isolation, American Sociological Review, (1973), 311–326.
[15]	L. C. Freeman, Centrality in social networks conceptual clarification, Social Networks, 1 (1978), 215-239.
[16]	Q. Fu, X. Guo and K. C. Land, A Poisson-multinomial mixture approach to grouped and right-censored counts, Communications in Statistics-Theory and Methods, 47 (2018), 427-447. doi: 10.1080/03610926.2017.1303736.
[17]	Q. Fu, X. Guo and K. C. Land, Optimizing count responses in surveys: A machine-learning approach, Sociological Methods & Research, (2020). doi: 10.1177/0049124117747302.
[18]	Q. Fu, How does the neighborhood inform activism? Civic engagement in urban transformation, Journal of Environmental Psychology, 63 (2019), 1-8.
[19]	Q. Fu and K. C. Land, Does urbanisation matter? A temporal analysis of the socio-demographic gradient in the rising adulthood overweight epidemic in China, 1989–2009, Population, Space and Place, 23 (2017), 1-17. doi: 10.1002/psp.1970.
[20]	Q. Fu, K. C. Land and V. L. Lamb, Bullying victimization, socioeconomic status and behavioral characteristics of 12th graders in the United States, 1989 to 2009: Repetitive trends and persistent risk differentials, Child Indicators Research, 6 (2013), 1-21. doi: 10.1007/s12187-012-9152-8.
[21]	Q. Fu, K. C. Land and V. L. Lamb, Violent physical bullying victimization at school: Has there been a recent increase in exposure or intensity? An age-period-cohort analysis in the United States, 1991 to 2012, Child Indicators Research, 9 (2016), 485-513. doi: 10.1007/s12187-015-9317-3.
[22]	Q. Fu and N. Lin, The weaknesses of civic territorial organizations: Civic engagement and homeowners associations in urban China, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 38 (2014), 2309-2327.
[23]	Q. Fu and Q. Ren, Educational inequality under China's rural-urban divide: The Hukou system and return to education, Environment and Planning A, 42 (2010), 592-610. doi: 10.1068/a42101.
[24]	Q. Fu, C. Wu, H. Liu, Z. Shi and J. Gu, Live like mosquitoes: Hukou, rural-urban disparity, and depression, Chinese Journal of Sociology, 4 (2018), 56-78. doi: 10.1177/2057150X17748313.
[25]	A. Fung, Associations and democracy: Between theories, hopes, and realities, Annual Review of Sociology, 29 (2003), 515-539. doi: 10.1146/annurev.soc.29.010202.100134.
[26]	W. A. Gamson, The Strategy of Social Protest, The Dorsey Press, Homewood, IL, 1975.
[27]	J. Ginn and S. Arber, Gender, class and income inequalities in later life, British Journal of Sociology, 42 (1991), 369-396. doi: 10.2307/591186.
[28]	R. M. Groves, F. Fowler Jr., M. Couper, J. Lepkowski, E. Sniger and R. Tourangeau, Survey Methodology, Wiley & Sons, New York, 2004.
[29]	R. Gulati and M. Gargiulo, Where do interorganizational networks come from?, American Journal of Sociology, 104 (1999), 1439-1493. doi: 10.1086/210179.
[30]	R. Gulati and M. Sytch, Dependence asymmetry and joint dependence in interorganziational relationships, Administrative Science Quarterly, 52 (2007), 32-69.
[31]	R. A. Hanneman and M. Riddle, Introduction to Social Network Methods, University of California, Riverside, CA, 2005.
[32]	M. Hunter, "If you're light you're alright" light skin color as social capital for women of color, Gender & Society, 16 (2002), 175-193. doi: 10.1177/08912430222104895.
[33]	J. C. Jenkins, Resource mobilization theory and the study of social movements, Annual Review of Sociology, 9 (1983), 527-553.
[34]	F. L. Jones, Sources of gender inequality in income: What the Australian Census says, Social Forces, 62 (1983), 134-152. doi: 10.2307/2578352.
[35]	D. Knoke, Associations and interest groups, Annual Review of Sociology, 12 (1986), 1-21.
[36]	K. C. Land, V. L. Lamb, S. Meadows, H. Zheng and Q. Fu, The CWI and its components: Empirical studies and findings, in The Well-Being of America's Children, Springer, New York, 2012, 29–75. doi: 10.1007/978-94-007-4092-1_3.
[37]	K. L. Land, P. L. McCall and D. S. Nagin, A comparison of Poisson, negative binomial, and semiparametric mixed Poisson regression models with empirical applications to criminal careers data, Sociological Methods & Research, 24 (1996), 387-442. doi: 10.1177/0049124101029003004.
[38]	J. S. Long and J. Freese, Regression Models for Categorical Dependent Variables Using Stata, Stata Press, College Station, 2006.
[39]	G. Marwell, P. E. Oliver and R. Prahl, Social Networks and Collective Action: A Theory of the Critical Mass. III, American Journal of Sociology, 94 (1988), 502-534.
[40]	D. S. Massey and N. A. Denton, The dimensions of residential segregation, Social Forces, 67 (1988), 281-315. doi: 10.2307/2579183.
[41]	J. D. McCarthy and M. N. Zald, Resource mobilization and social movements: A partial theory, American Journal of Sociology, 82 (1977), 1212-1241.
[42]	S. McDonald and J. C. Day, Race, gender, and the invisible hand of social capital, Sociology Compass, 4 (2010), 532-543. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-9020.2010.00298.x.
[43]	J. M. McPherson, Hypernetwork sampling: Duality and differentiation among voluntary organizations, Social Networks, 3 (1982), 225-249. doi: 10.1016/S0304-422X(01)80005-X.
[44]	J. M. McPherson and D. L. Smith-Lovin, Women and weak ties: Differences by sex in the size of voluntary associations, American Journal of Sociology, 87 (1982), 883-904.
[45]	M. McPherson, L. Smith-Lovin and M. E. Brashears, Social isolation in America: Changes in core discussion networks over two decades, American Sociological Review, 71 (2006), 353-375. doi: 10.1177/000312240607100301.
[46]	J. Moody, Race, school integration, and friendship segregation in America, American Journal of Sociology, 107 (2001), 679-716. doi: 10.1086/338954.
[47]	J. Moody and D. R. White, Structural cohesion and embeddedness: A hierarchical concept of social groups, American Sociological Review, (2003), 103–127. doi: 10.2307/3088904.
[48]	P. Paxton, Social capital and democracy: An interdependent relationship, American Sociological Review, 67 (2002), 254-277. doi: 10.2307/3088895.
[49]	P. A. Popielarz, Voluntary association: A multilevel analysis of gender segregation in voluntary organizations, Gender and Society, 13 (1999), 234-250. doi: 10.1177/089124399013002005.
[50]	P. A. Popielarz and and J. M. McPherson, On the edge or in between: Niche position, niche overlap and the duration of voluntary association memberships, American Journal of Sociology, 101 (1995), 628-720.
[51]	W. R. Poster, The challenges and promises of class and racial diversity in the women's movement: A study of two women's organziations, Gender and Society, 9 (1995), 659-679. doi: 10.1177/089124395009006002.
[52]	R. D. Putnam, Bowling alone: America's declining social capital, Journal of Democracy, 6 (1995), 65-78.
[53]	T. J. Rowley and M. Moldoveanu, When will stakeholder groups act? An interest-and-identity-based model of stakeholder group mobilization, Academy of Management Review, 28 (2003), 204-219. doi: 10.2307/30040709.
[54]	D. H. Smith, Voluntary action and voluntary groups, Annual Review of Sociology, 1 (1975), 247-270. doi: 10.1146/annurev.so.01.080175.001335.
[55]	S. S. Smith, Mobilizing social resources: Race, ethnic, and gender differences in social capital and persisting wage inequalities, The Sociological Quarterly, 41 (2000), 509-537.
[56]	T. A. B. Snijders, The degree variance: An index of graph heterogeneity, Social Networks, 3 (1981), 163-174. doi: 10.1016/0378-8733(81)90014-9.
[57]	D. A. Snow, L. A. Zurcher and S. Ekland-Olson, Social networks and social movements: A microstrucural approach to differential recruitment, American Sociological Review, 45 (1980), 787-801. doi: 10.2307/2094895.
[58]	S. Verba, K. L. Schlozman, H. Brady and N. H. Nie, Race, ethnicity and political resources: Participation in the United States, British Journal of Political Science, 23 (1993), 453-497.
[59]	S. Wasserman, Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications, Cambridge University Press, New York, 1994. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511815478.
[60]	W. J. Wilson, The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2012.
[61]	M. N. Zald and J. D. McCarthy, Social Movements in an Organizational Society, Transaction, New Brunswick, NJ, 1987.
[62]	Y. Zhu, W. Breitung and S. Li, The changing meaning of neighbourhood attachment in Chinese commodity housing estates: Evidence from Guangzhou, Urban Studies, 49 (2012), 2439-2457. doi: 10.1177/0042098011427188.
[63]	Y. Zhu and Q. Fu, Deciphering the civic virtue of communal space: Neighborhood attachment, social capital, and neighborhood participation in urban China, Environment and Behavior, 49 (2017), 161-191. doi: 10.1177/0013916515627308.