Ivaylo D. Petev - Social ecology

Topics in Quantitative Sociology

Fall 2020 ENSAE

Social Ecology

Why do certain organizations succeed and others fail? We explore how to integrate time to concepts of ecology to answer questions about social organization and collective action. We also look at the influence of population size and density on social phenomena over long time and large scale.

Background readings

Bettencourt, 2015, Ch, "Cities as complex systems"
Freeman & Audia, 2006, ARS, “Community ecology and the sociology of organizations”

Optional readings

Baum & Shipilov, 2006, Ch, "Ecological approaches to organizations"
Bettencourt, 2013, Sci, "The origins of scaling in cities"
Hannan & Freeman, 1977, AJS, "The population ecology of organizations"
McPherson, 2004, ICC, "A Blau space primer: Prolegomenon to an ecology of affiliation"
McPherson & Ranger-Moore, 1991, SF, "Evolution on a dancing landscape: Organizations and networks in dynamic Blau space"
Rojas, 2006, JIE, "Sociological imperialism in three theories of the market"
West, 2010, Ch2, “Integrated sustainability and the underlying threat of urbanization” in Global Sustainability: A Nobel Cause, ed. Schellnhuber.

Case-study for reading and commentary

Olzak & Ryo, 2007, SF, "Organizational diversity, vitality and outcomes in the Civic Rights Movement"

Sociologists often assert, but rarely test, the claim that organizational diversity benefits social movements by invigorating movement vitality and facilitating success. Our analysis of black civil rights organizations shows that goal and tactical diversity of a social movement is largely a function of organizational density, level of resources available to the movement, and the number of protests initiated by the movement. Goal diversity increases the rate of protest, whereas tactical diversity increases the likelihood of achieving a desired policy outcome. These findings advance our understanding of social movements and organizations by illuminating how organizational dynamics of a social movement might change over time, and in turn how this change might affect the vitality and desired outcomes of social movements.

Case-studies for written reviews

Barabasi, Albert-Laszlo, and Reka Albert. n.d. “Emergence of Scaling in Random Networks.”
Batty, Michael. 2013. “A Theory of City Size.” Science 340(6139):1418–19. doi: 10.1126/science.1239870.
Bettencourt, Luís M. A. 2013. “The Origins of Scaling in Cities.” Science 340(6139):1438–41. doi: 10.1126/science.1235823.
Bettencourt, Luís M. A., and José Lobo. 2016. “Urban Scaling in Europe.” Journal of The Royal Society Interface 13(116):20160005. doi: 10.1098/rsif.2016.0005.
Bettencourt, Luís M. A., José Lobo, Deborah Strumsky, and Geoffrey B. West. 2010. “Urban Scaling and Its Deviations: Revealing the Structure of Wealth, Innovation and Crime across Cities” edited by J. A. Añel. PLoS ONE 5(11):e13541. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0013541.
Bettencourt, Luís M. A., José Lobo, Dirk Helbing, Christian Kühnert, and Geoffrey B. West. 2007. “Growth, Innovation, Scaling, and the Pace of Life in Cities.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104(17):7301–6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0610172104.
Bettencourt, Luis M.A., José Lobo, and Deborah Strumsky. 2007. “Invention in the City: Increasing Returns to Patenting as a Scaling Function of Metropolitan Size.” Research Policy 36(1):107–20. doi: 10.1016/j.respol.2006.09.026.
Carroll, Glenn R., and Anand Swaminathan. 2000. “Why the Microbrewery Movement? Organizational Dynamics of Resource Partitioning in the U.S. Brewing Industry.” American Journal of Sociology 106(3):715–62. doi: 10.1086/318962.
Cress, Daniel M., J. Miller McPherson, and Thomas Rotolo. 1997. “Competition and Commitment in Voluntary Memberships: The Paradox of Persistence and Participation.” Sociological Perspectives 40(1):61–79. doi: 10.2307/1389493.
Harrison, J. R. 2004. “Models of Growth in Organizational Ecology: A Simulation Assessment.” Industrial and Corporate Change 13(1):243–61. doi: 10.1093/icc/13.1.243.
Jin, Ching, Chaoming Song, Johannes Bjelland, Geoffrey Canright, and Dashun Wang. 2019. “Emergence of Scaling in Complex Substitutive Systems.”
Li, Ruiqi, Lei Dong, Jiang Zhang, Xinran Wang, Wen-Xu Wang, Zengru Di, and H. Eugene Stanley. 2017. “Simple Spatial Scaling Rules behind Complex Cities.” Nature Communications 8(1):1841. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-01882-w.
Lim, May, Richard Metzler, and Yaneer Bar-Yam. 2007. “Global Pattern Formation and Ethnic/Cultural Violence.” Science 317(5844):1540–44. doi: 10.1126/science.1142734.
Mark, Noah. 1998. “Birds of a Feather Sing Together.” Social Forces 77(2):453–85. doi: 10.2307/3005535.
Mayhew, Bruce H. 1973. “System Size and Ruling Elites.” American Sociological Review 38(4):468. doi: 10.2307/2094216.
Mayhew, Bruce H., and Roger L. Levinger. 1976. “Size and the Density of Interaction in Human Aggregates.” American Journal of Sociology 82(1):86–110.
Mayhew, Bruce H., Roger L. Levinger, J. Miller McPherson, and Thomas F. James. 1972. “System Size and Structural Differentiation in Formal Organizations: A Baseline Generator for Two Major Theoretical Propositions.” American Sociological Review 37(5):629. doi: 10.2307/2093457.
McPherson, J. Miller, and James R. Ranger-Moore. 1991. “Evolution on a Dancing Landscape: Organizations and Networks in Dynamic Blau Space.” Social Forces 70(1):19–42. doi: 10.2307/2580060.
Mcpherson, Miller, Pamela Popielarz, and Sonja Drobnič. 1992. “Social Networks and Organizational Dynamics.” American Sociological Review 57:153–70. doi: 10.2307/2096202.
McPherson, Miller. 1983. “An Ecology of Affiliation.” American Sociological Review 48(4):519. doi: 10.2307/2117719.
Olzak, Susan. 2016. “The Effect of Category Spanning on the Lethality and Longevity of Terrorist Organizations.” Social Forces 95(2):559–84. doi: 10.1093/sf/sow081.
Ortman, Scott G., Andrew H. F. Cabaniss, Jennie O. Sturm, and Luís M. A. Bettencourt. 2014. “The Pre-History of Urban Scaling.” PLOS ONE 9(2):e87902. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0087902.
Ortman, Scott G., Andrew H. F. Cabaniss, Jennie O. Sturm, and Luís M. A. Bettencourt. 2015. “Settlement Scaling and Increasing Returns in an Ancient Society.” Science Advances 1(1):e1400066. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1400066.
Ortman, Scott G., José Lobo, and Michael E. Smith. 2020. “Cities: Complexity, Theory and History” edited by P. F. Biehl. PLOS ONE 15(12):e0243621. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0243621.
Pontikes, Elizabeth, and Michael Hannan. 2014. “An Ecology of Social Categories.” Sociological Science 1:311–43. doi: 10.15195/v1.a20.
Popielarz, Pamela A., and J. Miller McPherson. 1995. “On the Edge or In Between: Niche Position, Niche Overlap, and the Duration of Voluntary Association Memberships.” American Journal of Sociology 101(3):698–720.
Rao, Hayagreeva, Philippe Monin, and Rodolphe Durand Reviewed work(s): 2005. “Border Crossing: Bricolage and the Erosion of Categorical Boundaries in French Gastronomy.” American Sociological Review 70(6):968–91.
Rao, Hayagreeva, Philippe Monin, and Rodolphe Durand. 2003. “Institutional Change in Toque Ville: Nouvelle Cuisine as an Identity Movement in French Gastronomy.” American Journal of Sociology 108(4):795–843. doi: 10.1086/367917.
Rotolo, Thomas, and J. Miller McPherson. 2001. “The Sytem of Occupations: Modeling Occupations in Sociodemographic Space.” Social Forces 79(3):1095–1130.
Ruef, M. 2004. “For Whom the Bell Tolls: Ecological Perspectives on Industrial Decline and Resurgence.” Industrial and Corporate Change 13(1):61–89. doi: 10.1093/icc/13.1.61.
Sampson, Robert J. 1984. “Group Size, Heterogeneity, and Intergroup Conflict: A Test of Blau’s Inequality and Heterogeneity*.” Social Forces 62(3):618–39. doi: 10.1093/sf/62.3.618.
Sandell, Rickard. 2001. “Organizational Growth and Ecological Constraints: The Growth of Social Movements in Sweden, 1881 to 1940.” American Sociological Review 66:672–93. doi: 10.2307/3088953.
Scheffer, Marten, Bas Van Bavel, Ingrid A. Van De Leemput, and Egbert H. Van Nes. 2017. “Inequality in Nature and Society.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 114(50):13154–57. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1706412114.
Schläpfer, Markus, Luís M. A. Bettencourt, Sébastian Grauwin, Mathias Raschke, Rob Claxton, Zbigniew Smoreda, Geoffrey B. West, and Carlo Ratti. 2014. “The Scaling of Human Interactions with City Size.” Journal of The Royal Society Interface 11(98):20130789. doi: 10.1098/rsif.2013.0789.
Shi, Yongren, Fedor A. Dokshin, Michael Genkin, and Matthew E. Brashears. 2017. “A Member Saved Is a Member Earned? The Recruitment-Retention Trade-Off and Organizational Strategies for Membership Growth.” American Sociological Review 82(2):407–34. doi: 10.1177/0003122417693616.
Simons, Tal, and Paul Ingram. 2003. “Enemies of the State: The Interdependence of Institutional Forms and the Ecology of the Kibbutz, 1910–1997.” Administrative Science Quarterly 48(4):592–621. doi: 10.2307/3556638.
Sorensen, J. B. 2004. “Recruitment-Based Competition between Industries: A Community Ecology.” Industrial and Corporate Change 13(1):149–70. doi: 10.1093/icc/13.1.149.
Sørensen, Jesper B., and Amanda J. Sharkey. n.d. “Entrepreneurship as a Mobility Process.”
Thomas, R. J., and N. P. Mark. 2013. “Population Size, Network Density, and the Emergence of Inherited Inequality.” Social Forces 92(2):521–44. doi: 10.1093/sf/sot080.
Youn, Hyejin, Deborah Strumsky, Luis M. A. Bettencourt, and José Lobo. 2015. “Invention as a Combinatorial Process: Evidence from US Patents.” Journal of The Royal Society Interface 12(106):20150272. doi: 10.1098/rsif.2015.0272.
Youn, Hyejin, Luís M. A. Bettencourt, José Lobo, Deborah Strumsky, Horacio Samaniego, and Geoffrey B. West. 2016. “Scaling and Universality in Urban Economic Diversification.” Journal of The Royal Society Interface 13(114):20150937. doi: 10.1098/rsif.2015.0937.