Is social cohesion produced by weak ties or by multiplex ties? Rival hypotheses regarding leader networks in urban community settings

Abstract

In his seminal work, Mark Granovetter (1973) challenged sociologists to test sociometric hypotheses regarding collective action in communitarian settings. In this article, we tested the two main hypotheses which consider social cohesion in communitarian urban settings–these being firstly cohesion by weak ties and secondly cohesion by multiplex ties. We studied the elite leaders of two slum communities of Belo Horizonte (Brazil). Three social processes were examined as multiplex interactions: recognized status, exchange of useful information and collaboration. Our findings reveal, on the one hand, that multiplexity is associated with the frequency of ties and, on the other, that reciprocity and shared domains of performance fuel such strong multiplexity. If we assume that elite connections conform to a high order structure, our findings, in contrast to previously well-established hypotheses, reveal a segmented social order in which multiplexity does not mean the overlapping of social circles. On the contrary, multiplexed social exchanges are restricted to specialized domains.