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Der erfolgreiche Aufstieg einer Familie jüdischer Immigranten in den USA wird in der 4. Generation zunichte gemacht, als die junge Tochter sich dem terroristischen Anti-Vietnam-Protest anschließt. Rezensentin Irmgard Andrae nennt den Roman in ihrer Besprechung des Fahnenabzugs der deutschen Ausgabe einen "vielschichtigen, glänzend organisierten, routiniert erzählten Zeitroman". Ausgezeichnet mit dem Pulitzerpreis 1998.

Jan Fuhse: Social Networks of Meaning and Communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press 2022. 9780190275433

Soziale Netzwerke und Innovation -- Erklärung der Entstehung von Ratgebernetzwerken -- Einführung und empirische Anwendung des Konzepts Sozialer Situationen und der Tagebuchmethode -- Empirisch fundierte Erklärung der Wirkung von Gelegenheitsstrukturen -- Bedeutung (lokaler) Kulturen für Netzwerkentwicklung

"Organizing the early stage of the innovation process, and hence the development of ideas, is of considerable importance for the success of an enterprise. During this stage, decision making is particularly difficult because of both high complexity and high uncertainty. At the same time, these decisions are far reaching because the outcome of the early stage has a substantial influence on the results of subsequent stages. Social network research shows that specific network constellations in particular favor the development of ideas. To promote the development of these constellations, the dynamics of networks have to be understood. However, the insights that have been gained so far are insufficient. To go beyond these insights in the article, initially a research question is developed from a practice-theoretical point of view. The research aim is to explore the constitutive conditions of the practices of initiating and conducting idea-related interactions in the early stage of the innovation process. Subsequently, the article critically examines the given methodological approaches of social network research. It is demonstrated here that the existing research gap is essentially the result of two central methodological shortcomings. To overcome these shortcomings, a mixed-method design that links the diary method with established methods of qualitative network research is proposed and discussed." (author's abstract)

Abstract
Informal social networks and especially advice networks are a key subject of organizational sociological research. The formation of these networks has so far been explained on the basis of universal tie-formation mechanisms. However, recent conceptual contributions suggest that tie formation practices follow cultural rules that may vary across social contexts. In our paper, we substantiate this argument empirically. Based on rich qualitative data, we compare advice tie formation (a) between two entrepreneurial communities and (b) between three research and development departments of large enterprises. We show that both impact and configuration of tie formation mechanisms systematically differ between comparable contexts. Building on our findings, we finally formulate propositions describing which advice network structures can be expected in specific cultures.

Virtualization fundamentally changes how social relations form, but its effect on network structure in collaborative teams is poorly understood. This paper compares team networks from nine government-funded projects that were conducted virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic with 15 prepandemic projects from the same funding program. Results of our comparative analysis of 2,746 dyadic ties in 24 teams showed lower levels of network density, clustering, and structural cohesion in virtualized projects, indicating fragmented virtual teams. Furthermore, expressive networks, defined by the sharing of personal information, were affected more than instrumental networks, which revolve around the sharing of expert knowledge.

Private and organizational users are widely treated as equal in the literature on the integration of users in innovation projects. Based on a practice-theoretical perspective, we argue in this paper that this equation is inconsistent and inadequate. While users are conceptualized as competent and embedded when it comes to the genesis of their user knowledge, both factors are ignored when their involvement in the innovation process is considered. Drawing on empirical findings on interorganizational knowledge transfer, we show that the social, formal, and material embeddedness of organizational users crucially structures their integration. By elaborating the role of different structural dimensions in detail, we highlight the distinctive features of organizational users. In doing so, we further develop a heuristic that enables a detailed and adequate analysis of their integration.