Chapter 6 : Groups, Networks, and Organizations

1. Consider primary groups and secondary groups. Tell which one was the type of group in which most interactions took place for most of human history. What happened to change that pattern?

2. According to Simmel's principle, what happens as group size increases?

3. Name the social status of yours that you most wish people interacting with you would ignore or not focus on so much (e.g. your sex, your age, your race, your ethnicity, your physical handicap status, your social class, other status?). Describe how interacting with others over e-mail would alleviate this problem.

4. Name a national law we have in the U.S. that has in some way affected your life, and explain how your life would be different on this parameter if you were living in an ancient traditional village instead.

5. What, in your own words, is social capital?

6. Tell four reasons Putnam posits to account for declining membership in voluntary organizations.

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