Positions in Multiple Network Systems, Part One: A General Conception of Stratification and Prestige in a System of Actors Cast as a Social Topology

Extending the conception of positions in networks (Burt, c) to the case of a multiple network system, a general conception of stratification and prestige in a system of actors is outlined. The status / role-set duality is preserved by defining these concepts as features of positions occupied by actors. Actors jointly occupying a status provide interchangeable indicators of role distance to the status. The actor-status epistemic linkage is thus isomorphic with the indicator-concept epistemic correlation and can be analyzed via structural equation models specifying actors as indicator variables and statuses as unobserved variables. Conceptual issues are addressed here. Part Two, appearing in the next issue of this journal, applies the conception to a system of elite community decision-makers.