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Although questions about social cohesion lie at the core of our discipline, definitions are often vague and difficult to operationalize. Here, research on social cohesion and social embeddedness is linked by developing a concept of structural cohesion based on network node connectivity. Structural cohesion is defined as the minimum number of actors who, if removed from a group, would disconnect the group. A structural dimension of embeddedness can then be defined through the hierarchical nesting of these cohesive structures. The empirical applicability of nestedness is demonstrated in two dramatically different substantive settings, and additional theoretical implications with reference to a wide array of substantive fields are discussed.
"[S]ocial solidarity is a wholly moral phenomenon which by itself is not amenable to exact observation and especially not to measurement."
-Durkheim ([1893] 1984:24)
"The social structure [of the dyad] rests immediately on the one and on the other of the two, and the secession of either would destroy the whole .... As soon, however, as there is a sociation of three, a group continues to exist even in case one of the members drops out."
-Simmel ([1908] 1950:123)
QUESTIONS SURROUNDING social solidarity are foundational for sociologists and have engaged researchers continuously since Durkheim. Researchers across a wide spectrum of substantive fields employ "cohesion" or "solidarity" as a key element of their work. Social disorganization theorists, for example, tout the importance of "community cohesion" for preventing crime (Sampson and Groves 1989). Political sociologists focus on how a cohesive civil society promotes democracy (Paxton 1999; Putnam 2000). Historical sociologists point to the importance of solidarity for revolutionary action (Bearman 1993; Gould 1991), and that the success of heterodox social movements depends on a cohesive critical mass of true believers (Oliver, Marwell, and Teixeira 1985). Social epidemiologists argue that a cohesive "core" is responsible for the persistence of sexually transmitted diseases (Rothenberg, Potterat, and Woodhouse 1996). Worker solidarity is a key concept in the sociology of work (Hodson 2001). Social psychologists have repeatedly returned to issues surrounding cohesion and solidarity, attempting to understand both its nature (Bollen and Hoyle 1990; Gross and Martin 1952; Roark and Shara 1989) and consequences (Carron 1982; Hansell 1984).
Unfortunately, as with "structure" (Sewell 1992), the rhetorical power of "cohesion" is both a blessing...