TY - JOUR TI - Linking tie-meaning with network structure: Variable connotations of personal lending in a multiple-network ecology AU - Gondal, Neha AU - McLean, Paul D. T2 - Poetics AB - Accepting that a given type of tie in a network may have multiple meanings, we propose that this heterogeneity of meaning leaves traces in the network's micro- and macrostructure. By analyzing the variegated structure of a historical network, along with multiple other ties connecting its participants, we infer how different available meanings of a given type of tie were dominant in different parts of the network and social space. In this way we make a methodological and empirical contribution to recent debates linking network structure and cultural meaning. Meaning diversity arises from actors’ differential exposure to distinctive social contexts, or “netdoms,” and differential embeddedness of their ties in other networks within a multiple-network social ecology. We illustrate our argument using a directed-tie network of 3590 personal loans involving 2223 actors in Renaissance Florence. Within the network, we find a strong component marked by complex microstructures of reciprocation and triangulation and actors’ frequent participation in business and civic administration. Outside the strong component, lending was sparser, unreciprocated, and frequently conducted within family, apparently according to traditional lending norms. We suggest ways in which our methodological approach to discerning variety in relational meaning using multiple-networks can be generalized to other cases. DA - 2013/04// PY - 2013 DO - 10.1016/j.poetic.2012.12.002 DP - ScienceDirect VL - 41 IS - 2 SP - 122 EP - 150 J2 - Poetics SN - 0304-422X ST - Linking tie-meaning with network structure UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304422X13000028 Y2 - 2016/05/12/12:47:05 ER -