Positions in Multiple Network Systems, Part Two: Stratification and Prestige Among Elite Decision- Makers in the Community of Altneustadt

Three basic research issues are addressed concerning the structure of relations among elite community decision-makers as an illustrative application of the conception of a system of actors as a social topology given in Part One (appearing in the previous issue of this journal): (1) What is the form of the role-sets defining statuses across which the elite are stratified? (2) What is the content of these role-sets, i.e., what is the substance of the relations differentiating the community elite? (3) How is the possession of resources associated with the distribution of prestige among the community elite? The application to elite decision-makers in a small German community illustrates the explicit epistemic linkage between abstract and empirical structure inherent in casting a system of actors as a social topology and the hypothesis testing capabilities arising from this explicit linkage.