University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations Dissertations and Theses November 2018 Three Essays on Network Dynamics and Liminality Diego F. Leal University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2 Part of the Inequality and Stratification Commons, Medicine and Health Commons, Migration Studies Commons, Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies Commons, Social Statistics Commons, and the Sociology of Culture Commons Recommended Citation Leal, Diego F., "Three Essays on Network Dynamics and Liminality" (2018). Doctoral Dissertations. 1446. https://doi.org/10.7275/12431333 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/1446 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THREE ESSAYS ON NETWORK DYNAMICS AND LIMINALITY A Dissertation Presented by DIEGO F. LEAL Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY September 2018 Department of Sociology © Copyright by Diego F. Leal 2018 All Rights Reserved THREE ESSAYS ON NETWORK DYNAMICS AND LIMINALITY A Dissertation Presented by DIEGO F. LEAL Approved as to style and content by: ____________________________________ James A. Kitts, Chair ____________________________________ Joya Misra, Member ____________________________________ Mark C. Pachucki, Member ____________________________________ Justin H. Gross, Member ____________________________________ Anthony Paik, Chair Department of Sociology DEDICATION para mi mamá “To speak a language is to take on a world, a culture (…) The fact that I had been able to investigate so interesting a problem through the white man’s language gave me honorary citizenship.” (Fanon 2008 [1956]: 25). ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Only after several years did I come to realize how lucky I was to have had so many hours of one-on-one mentoring with James Kitts during his transition to UMass. James always holds me to the highest standards of theoretical and methodological rigor and that is exactly why I decided to work with him. I would like to think that my commitment to academic work is very similar to his. Ultimately, I believe that was the key to our relationship. Thanks to him, I found an academic community – Mathematical Sociology. I cannot thank James enough for helping me secure a job firmly anchored in that community; the kind of job I dreamed about when I left Bogotá with so many unknowns and one, and only one, book under my arm, Wasserman and Faust’s Social Network Analysis. It is absolutely surreal to know that I am now going to be a Professor in the one Sociology department that saw that book come to life. For James’ role in making this dream possible and, by doing so, giving me a tangible chance to leave poverty behind, my family and I will be forever grateful. Joya Misra was a source of academic and emotional support during my years in the PhD. I am very lucky that whatever I had to offer back in the day aligned with her desire to understand the migration flows of women. Joya provided a very important balance to my work by allowing me to keep one foot in the world of migration studies. A good part of my dissertation work was possible because of my collaboration with her. Ragini Malhotra was a key mediator in that context. It is because of her that Joya and I forged a relationship. My friendship with Ragini was also key for my development as a speaker and writer of English. I would also like to express my gratitude to Mark Pachucki. He introduced me to the study of the social determinants of health from a computational perspective. That is a now a meaningful part of my academic work. I truly hope we can continue sharing ideas and v collaborating in this area in the years to come. From him I learned a lot about work-life balance. I have promised myself I will try to be more like him in the years to come. Steve Boutcher and Tony Paik were also important mentors. They showed me how friendship can emerge between colleagues. I do not think I will forget our theoretical debates. The fact that they seriously thought about my arguments made me feel like a peer rather than a mere pupil. I hope to be able to provide such a space for my own students. Rodrigo Domínguez, Alexandra Casuso, Yalçın Özkan, Enku Ide, Lissa Fajardo, Ms. Duckling, Nate Meyers, Swati Birla, Aaron Yates, Marie Dieres, and Fei Tu were key allies, in different moments, during my years at UMass. Kelsey Lewis brought lots of balance and love to the dissertation process. I truly admire her courage to leave things behind to pursue her dream, living in Brazil. She is much stronger than she realizes. I wish her the best in São Paulo. A mi mamá, Elizabeth Castro, le debo mucho de lo que soy. Gracias a ella por ser un ejemplo de berraquera. Sé que todos estos años de distancia la golpearon muy duro. Nadie que yo conozco pudo haberse enfrentado a esa soledad como ella lo hizo. La entereza de mi carácter se deriva del de ella, no tengo duda alguna. A mi tía Piedad, Nando, Magda y Julián, gracias por siempre creer en mí. A Alejandra Zaldúa, mi primer amor, le estoy infinitamente agradecido por su amor y apoyo incondicional. Nuestra relación fue la principal víctima de la pobreza que me acosó en Colombia. Resiento mi suerte por ese hecho pero abrigo la esperanza de conservar su amistad. A toda la gente de latin@s @ happy valley, espero verlos pronto. Finalmente, a mis parceros en Amherst y Northampton, tanto los niños (Pibe, Caliche, Mario, Santi, Pipe, Cami, Santi, Mati, Dario y Luis) como las niñas (Arlene, Aleja, Pilar, Ana, Itza y Castri), gracias por su amistad. Sin ustedes me habría vuelto loco, ¡esta tesis es de todos! Finally, Chapter two in this dissertation was partly supported by the grant 1R01-HD- 086259 (PIs: James Kitts and John Sirard) from the National Institutes of Health. vi ABSTRACT THREE ESSAYS ON NETWORK DYNAMICS AND LIMINALITY SEPTEMBER 2018 DIEGO F. LEAL, B.A., UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE COLOMBIA – BOGOTÁ M.A., UNIVERSIDAD DE LOS ANDES – BOGOTÁ Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS – AMHERST Directed by: Professor James A. Kitts This dissertation focuses on the emergence and evolution of social networks by paying particular attention to the spanning of cultural boundaries that segregate actors in the context of specific societies. In particular, I use systems science methods to study the bridging of cultural holes in small and relatively dense artificial societies, as well as in an American high school. I also study the significance of local triadic configurations in giving rise to the highly hierarchical system of aggregate-level migration flows in place in the Americas during the late 20th century. I use the concept of liminality as a way to analyze these disparate social systems. More precisely, I focus on the role of cultural brokers seen as actors at the limen – i.e. at the border – of symbolic boundaries, actors that can act as bridges between culturally disconnected worlds. In this context, this dissertation explains key network dynamics behind two emergent phenomena that are the direct result of liminal agents’ behaviors: the diffusion of innovations (Chapters 1 and 2) and a system of international migration flows (Chapter 3). Finally, I also put forward a critical view on brokerage based on different cases mentioned in the literature (e.g. 1.5 generation migrants or multiracial individuals) that show how the spanning of cultural holes can put brokers at an increased risk of being socially and/or psychologically harmed. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................................ v ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................ vii LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................................. xi LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................................... xii INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 1. DIFFUSION AS THE BRIDGING OF CULTURAL HOLES: AN AGENT-BASED COMPUTATIONAL MODEL ........................................................................................................ 5 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 5 Theory ...................................................................................................................................... 8 Symbolic Boundaries and (Permanent) Liminality ............................................... 8 Cultural Brokerage and Liminality ........................................................................ 11 Towards a Critical View of Liminality ................................................................. 13 Do not Romanticize Liminality ............................................................... 13 Do not Naturalize Cultural Brokerage ..................................................