Salience, Heterogeneity and Consolidation of Parameters: Civilizing Blau's Primitive Theory

Blau's (1977) theory uses properties of macro social structure to deduce properties of micro social structure, the network of observed social relations among individuals. This paper continues the work of Fararo (1981) in providing a formal linkage between these two levels using the concepts of biased net theory. The application provides versions of Blau's major theorems that uncover implications not readily apparent from his verbal presentation, permits the extension of his theory beyond characteristics along which preferences for ingroup association exist to ones along which preferences for outgroup association may exist (and ones even stranger where both preference types may exist), demonstrates the theoretical basis for some negative results of recent research (Blau et al., 1982), and offers a rigorous basis for a general formal theory of-social structure's influences on people's associations with one another.