The Structure of Community Organizational Networks

Organizational networks in a medium-size midwestern community are examined. Smallest space analysis is used to describe the money, information, and support flows among a wide range of formal organizations. Actors central to these networks are described in detail, and path analysis is used to examine the relationships between organizations' resources, interests, centrality, and influence in community affairs. Organizations which control the most funds and are more dependent on the community for money and legitimacy tend to be more central in each network. Organizations' technology also affects their centrality. However, resources and local dependencies have only an indirect effect on organizations' influence in the community. These effects are mediated by actors' centrality in the three resource networks. Centrality has the strongest direct effect on influence of all variables used in the analysis.