Social Networks and Construction of Culture: A Socio-Semantic Analysis of Art Groups

TL;DR

This study investigates how social ties influence cultural sharing and construction within art groups, revealing that social bridging promotes shared concepts, while popularity may hinder cultural exchange.

Contribution

It introduces a socio-semantic analysis linking social network positions with cultural construct properties in small art groups, highlighting roles in collective culture building.

Findings

Social bridging fosters shared cultural concepts.

Popularity can hinder cultural sharing.

Intense interactions correlate with cultural integration.

Abstract

This paper explores the relations between social ties and cultural constructs in small groups. The analysis uses cross-sectional data comprising both social networks within three art groups and semantic networks based on verbal expressions of their members. We examine how positions of actors in the intragroup social networks associate with the properties of cultural constructs they create jointly with other group members accounting for different roles actors play in collective culture constructing. We find that social popularity rather hinders sharing of cultural concepts, while those individuals who socially bridge their groups come to share many concepts with others. Moreover, focusing and, especially, integration of cultural constructs, rather than mere thickness of those, accompany intense interactions between the leaders and the followers.