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***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.sfu.ca/~insna/ ***** Yes. I Googled "Ivan Chase" and found this page: http://www.sunysb.edu/sociology/lab/index.htm Here are three of his papers that are accessible there: *1) VACANCY CHAINS */Annu. Rev. Sociol. 1991. 17:133-54/ http://www.sunysb.edu/sociology/lab/pub/vaca_ars91.html /Abstract/ The concept of vacancy chains, originally developed in Harrison White's pioneering analysis of organizational mobility processes, has been extended to phenomena as diverse as national labor and housing markets, the historical development of professions, gender and ethnic group discrimination in job and housing markets, organizational demography, and the mobility of hermit crabs to empty snail shells. In all populations in which they occur--whether human or animal--vacancy chains appear to organize a variety of social processes in nearly identical ways...... *2) Vacancy chains: a process of mobility to new resources in humans and other animals *Biology and social life, Biologie et vie sociale Ivan D. Chase and Theodore H. De Witt http://www.sunysb.edu/sociology/lab/pub/biossi88.html/ /*3) The vacancy chain process: a new mechanism of resource distribution in animals with application to hermit crabs */Anim. Behav/., 1988, *36*, 1265-1274 IVAN D. CHASE, MARC WEISSBURG & THEODORE H. DEWITT http://www.sunysb.edu/sociology/lab/pub/animbehav88.html *Abstract*. A number of resources important to humans such as jobs in bureaucracies, houses and apartments are allocated through a mechanism known as a vacancy chain. In a vacancy chain process an initial, vacant resource unit entering a population of users is taken by a first individual who leaves his/her previous resource unit behind, which is taken by a second individual, and so on. In this process an initial resource unit works both directly and indirectly to provide opportunities for several individuals to gain new and better resources. Vacancy chains are hypothesized to be important in resource distribution for a variety of non-human animals, and it is documented, in particular, that the hermit crab /Pagurus longicarpus /gets the gastropod shells in which it lives through this mechanism. The direct and indirect effects of vacancy chains on hermit crabs and the systematic ways in which chains flow through groups of crabs and their resources are indicated. In systems where they occur, it is further hypothesized that vacancy chains have unique implications for the ecology of resource users. several of these hypotheses are explored using the example of hermit crabs. The vacancy chain process is a unique mechanism of resource allocation that researchers have reported previously only in human populations. Houses and apartments (e.g. Lansing et al. 1969; Sands & Bower 1976) and jobs in bureaucracies (e.g. White 1970; Stewman 1975) are allocated through this mechanism. Although researchers have not yet undertaken formal studies, we pro- pose that major human consumer goods such as automobiles (Smith 1941; White 1970), airplanes and boats also move through vacancy chains. We demonstrate that vacancy chains also describe the allocation of a vital resource in a non-human population, the acquisition of gastropod shells by the hermit crab, /Pagurus longicarpus/. We indicate how vacancy chains order the movement of shells from one crab to another, and we explore the implications of this type of resource allocation for the behaviour and fitness of crabs. (See Chase & DeWitt 1988 for an initial report.) He has links to related material. I found the one about "Giant Pacific Octopus/ (octopus dofleini)/ to be especially interesting, perhaps because this material, including the wonderful photographs, were done in the waters around Vancouver, British Columbia. You can see how vacancy chains work if you study them. Enjoy! Bill Don Steiny wrote: >Hi, > Are any of Ivan Chase's papers on line? >-Don > > _____________________________________________________________________ SOCNET is a service of INSNA, the professional association for social network researchers (http://www.sfu.ca/~insna/). To unsubscribe, send an email message to [log in to unmask] containing the line UNSUBSCRIBE SOCNET in the body of the message.