Networks and Neo-Structural Sociology

This chapter introduces a neo-structural theoretical framework in sociology. It shows how social and organizational network analyses help explore the use of personalized relationships for management of cooperation dilemmas. Notions and measurements of relational infrastructures show how members navigate social processes (including solidarity, control regulation, and learning) to transform them into social capital of their collective. Focus on regulation helps develop a neo-structural institutionalism, tracking, for example, institutional entrepreneurs with high, heterogeneous and inconsistent forms of social status, who punch above their weight in normative controversies by exploiting oppositional solidarities and rhetorics of sacrifice. This framework leads to new examination of social inequalities by introducing dynamic and multilevel relational infrastructures, with notions such as organizational stratigraphy, dynamic invariants, multilevel status of vertical linchpins, intermediary-level social niches, and synchronization costs.

AN EXACT SOLUTION TO THE QUANTIZED ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD IN D-DIMENSIONAL DE SITTER SPACE–TIMES

In this work, we investigate the quantum theory of light propagating in D-dimensional de Sitter space–times. To do so, we use the method of dynamic invariants to obtain the solution of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. The quantum behavior of the electromagnetic field in this background is analyzed. As the electromagnetism loses its conformality in D≠4, we point out that there will be particle production and comoving objects will feel a Bunch–Davies thermal bath. This may become important in extra dimension physics and raises the intriguing possibility that precise measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background could verify the existence of extra dimensions.