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Dear friends,

The following book has just been released in paperback.  It may be of interest.  --Mario

Someone To Talk To: How Networks Matter in Practice (Oxford)
Mario L. Small

Highlights
*   Tests the widely-held idea that strong ties are best for social support
*   Explains why people often turn, instead, to weak ties when confiding highly personal matters
*   Examines the history, meaning, and challenges of the GSS "important matters" name generator
*   Demonstrates the importance of qualitative research in big-data network analysis
*   Provides introduction to practice-based perspective on ego-network analysis

Summary
When people are facing difficulties, they often need for a confidant. How do they decide on whom to rely?  Someone To Talk To follows a group of graduate students as they cope with stress, overwork, self-doubt, failure, relationships, children, health care, and poverty. It unravels how they decide whom to turn to for support.  It then confirms its findings based on representative national data on adult Americans.  The book finds that rather than consistently relying on their "strong ties," Americans often take pains to avoid close friends and family, as these relationships are both complex and fraught with expectations. In contrast, they often confide in "weak ties," as the need for understanding or cognitive empathy trumps their fear of misplaced trust. In fact, people may find themselves confiding in acquaintances and even strangers unexpectedly, without having reflected on the consequences. Amid a growing wave of big data and large-scale network analysis, the book returns to the basic questions of whom we connect with, how, and why, upending conventional wisdom on how we should think about and analyze social networks.

Recipient of James Coleman Award; Outstanding Recent Contribution to Social Psychology Award; Best Publication in Mental Health Award; and Honorable Mention, PROSE Award in cultural anthropology and sociology.  https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__scholar.harvard.edu_mariosmall_someone-2Dtalk&d=DwIFaQ&c=sJ6xIWYx-zLMB3EPkvcnVg&r=yQQsvTNAnbvDXGM4nDrXAje4pr0qHX2qIOcCQtJ5k3w&m=R035AGUNZvljQ48exns_hcxjt9t6wd3b0lHdeIQ5XD8&s=65T9FxPM2VKAC1VRRCCa03Hb4XsEdecT5WrmYYDDdr4&e= 

Oxford U Press is offering a discount (30%) at global.oup.com/academic with code ASFLYQ6.

__
Grafstein Family Professor of Sociology
Harvard University
33 Kirkland St
Cambridge, MA 02138

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