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9 - The Production of Consensus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2009

Noah E. Friedkin
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Barbara
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Summary

Abstract: I show how social influence network theory elucidates the development of agreements among actors in the six faculties of science. First, I present a formal analysis of the structural conditions of consensus. Second, I develop an image of the pattern of interpersonal influences among the social positions in the science faculties. Third, I assess the extent to which individual differences among the actors in the social positions are reduced, maintained, or increased by flows of interpersonal influence. Fourth, I locate the equilibrium destinations of actors that have emerged as a complex product of the social influence system.

The essence of a group is not the similarity or dissimilarity of its members, but their interdependence. A group can be characterized as a “dynamical whole.”

– K. Lewin (1948, p. 84)

Were it not for the differences among actors, there would be scant interest in their interdependency. Social differentiation sets the stage for a drama (a) in which actors more or less radically modify the opinions that reflect their social positions, (b) in which the actors form, or fail to attain, interpersonal agreements, and (c) in which particular actors can emerge as dominating characters whose social positions define the content of the agreements that are formed. Each such drama has an idiosyncratic period and setting, but the thematic content is timeless and ubiquitous – a display and clash of different viewpoints that become reconciled or fixed in irreconcilable opposition.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1998

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  • The Production of Consensus
  • Noah E. Friedkin, University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Book: A Structural Theory of Social Influence
  • Online publication: 23 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511527524.010
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  • The Production of Consensus
  • Noah E. Friedkin, University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Book: A Structural Theory of Social Influence
  • Online publication: 23 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511527524.010
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Production of Consensus
  • Noah E. Friedkin, University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Book: A Structural Theory of Social Influence
  • Online publication: 23 December 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511527524.010
Available formats
×