Associative nature of event participation dynamics: a network theory approach

TL;DR

This paper investigates how individual engagement in social groups influences network structure, showing that increased participation strengthens existing ties and that large events expand networks while small events enhance group cohesion.

Contribution

It introduces a network theory approach to analyze the associative dynamics of event participation across scientific and leisure social groups.

Findings

Increased engagement strengthens existing social ties.

Large events expand social networks.

Small events improve group cohesion.

Abstract

The affiliation with various social groups can be a critical factor when it comes to quality of life of each individual, making such groups an essential element of every society. The group dynamics, longevity and effectiveness strongly depend on group's ability to attract new members and keep them engaged in group activities. It was shown that high heterogeneity of scientist's engagement in conference activities of the specific scientific community depends on the balance between the numbers of previous attendances and non-attendances and is directly related to scientist's association with that community. Here we show that the same holds for leisure groups of the Meetup website and further quantify individual members' association with the group. We examine how structure of personal social networks is evolving with the event attendance. Our results show that member's increasing engagement in the group activities is primarily associated with the strengthening of already existing ties and increase in the bonding social capital. We also show that Meetup social networks mostly grow trough big events, while small events contribute to the groups cohesiveness.