position. These third parties can broker introductions (Burt, 2005), enforce norms (e.g., Bendor and Swistak, 2001; Coleman, 1990; Raub and Weesie, 1990; Simmel, 1950), or contribute to the perception of an entity distinct from others in the school (Freeman, 1992). Each of the effects of parties described in the previous paragraph can contribute to the salience of local positions as groups representing more than an aggregate of dyadic phenomena. As such, the local position memberships can serve as an efficient signal to reduce the transaction costs of identifying potential friends. This generates our primary hypothesis: H1: Adolescents will be more likely to nominate members of local positions as new friends than to nominate others in their school as new friends. If hypothesis 1 holds, it would represent a unique contribution of this study by establishing how friendship nominations are embedded in emergent social structures defined by coursetaking. These friendship nominations can then shape the distribution of social capital within schools. Micro Foundations of Status Hierarchies A second implication of the potential salience of local positions as groups is that members within a local position may have equal potential as friends, regardless of specific micro social relations in which a pair of adolescents is embedded. One of the strongest tendencies in micro social relations is for actors to seek transitivity (e.g., Cartwright and Harary, 1956; Davis Holland and Leinhardt, 1971,
position. These third parties can broker introductions (Burt, 2005), enforce norms (e.g., Bendor and Swistak, 2001; Coleman, 1990; Raub and Weesie, 1990; Simmel, 1950), or contribute to the perception of an entity distinct from others in the school (Freeman, 1992). Each of the effects of parties described in the previous paragraph can contribute to the salience of local positions as groups representing more than an aggregate of dyadic phenomena. As such, the local position memberships can serve as an efficient signal to reduce the transaction costs of identifying potential friends. This generates our primary hypothesis: H1: Adolescents will be more likely to nominate members of local positions as new friends than to nominate others in their school as new friends. If hypothesis 1 holds, it would represent a unique contribution of this study by establishing how friendship nominations are embedded in emergent social structures defined by coursetaking. These friendship nominations can then shape the distribution of social capital within schools. Micro Foundations of Status Hierarchies A second implication of the potential salience of local positions as groups is that members within a local position may have equal potential as friends, regardless of specific micro social relations in which a pair of adolescents is embedded. One of the strongest tendencies in micro social relations is for actors to seek transitivity (e.g., Cartwright and Harary, 1956; Davis Holland and Leinhardt, 1971,
The%20Embeddedness%20of%20Adolescent%20Friendship%20Nominations%20revisions%20for%20conditional%20accept%20postsubmitted%205-31%20home%20changes%20accepted.docx