The Parents and Citizens Association (P&C) is a cohort of parents, teachers, the Principal and members of the school's local community. Key elements of the P&C are the Executive members, that is the President, the Vice President, the Secretary, the Treasurer and the Principal. The main aim of the P&C is to support the school and students, socially and financially. As Stanley Milgrim (Buchanan, 2002) found in his "small worlds" theory, this network of people is also made up of strong and weak links to the wider community (Kuttainen, 2016. slide 4). In each network, the super connectors facilitate greater connectivity to other networks. Within the P&C, the Principal, the President and Secretary, can be considered as super connectors due to their relationships with staff, other schools, the Department of Education, P&C Queensland and businesses in the wider community.
Network theory emerged from pure math studies of two maths Professors, Strogatz and Watts, who were endeavoring to quantify social interactions with mathematics, Synchrony. Their research led them to the conclusion that the architecture of all networks is identical.
If a network is made up of small worlds, hubs and super connectors, the P&C is the hub which makes the school network, as it stands, viable. From within this hub there are small worlds that can be identified as, the teachers and staff, the parents, the members of the P&C, and the Executive. Each of these small worlds can become a hub of their own, branching out to individual members of that world.
Studies relating to Network Theory help us identify and understand real and online social networks. American sociologist Stanley Milgrim, theorized that there were six degrees of separation or less, from one entity to another, whether they be human societies, transport networks or bees (Buchanan, 2002). Physician and social scientist, Nicholas Christakis: The hidden influence of social networks is an interesting look at network theory and how it influences us socially by choices we make.
In further posts I will explore and discuss the nature and dynamics of power within the P&C network.
Reference list
Christakis, N. (2010) The hidden influence of social networks. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/nicholas_christakis_the_hidden_influence_of_social_networks?languag
Kuttainen, V. (2016). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, narratives, and the making of place, Lecture 2: Power [Powerpoint]. Retrieved from https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au
Woozeer, A. (2010). Six degrees of separation. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/14196818
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