Structural measures of personal networks predict migrants' cultural backgrounds: an explanation from Grid/Group theory Articles uri icon

authors

  • MOLINA, JOSE LUIS
  • OZAITA CORRAL, JUAN
  • TAMARIT RAMIREZ, IGNACIO
  • SANCHEZ SANCHEZ, ANGEL
  • MC CARTY, CHRISTOPHER
  • BERNARD, H. RUSSELL

publication date

  • September 2022

start page

  • 1

end page

  • 8

issue

  • 4

volume

  • 1

Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)

  • 2752-6542

abstract

  • Culture and social structure are not separated analytical domains but intertwined phenomena observable in personal networks. Drawing on a personal networks dataset of migrants in the United States and Spain, we show that the country of origin, a proxy for diverse languages and cultural institutions, and religion may be predicted by specific combinations of personal network structural measures (closeness, clustering, betweenness, average degree, etc). We obtain similar results applying three different methods (a multinomial logistic regression, a Random Forest algorithm, and an artificial neural network). This finding is explained within the framework of the Grid/Group theory that has long posed the interdependence of social structural and cultural features of human groups.

subjects

  • Anthropology
  • Mathematics
  • Sociology

keywords

  • cultural signature; social signature; personal networks; grid/group theory; migration