ABSTRACT
Complex societies are characterized by multiple, partly overlapping communities with a network topology that makes it possible for individuals to reap benefits such as social support, resources, protection, access to better jobs, relevant information, and, last but certainly not least, possibilities of influencing other people – power. Since people’s positions in a given network differ, the benefits they can get through their social relations are unequally distributed. Furthermore, positional effects on benefits differ for each kind of benefit. For example, a network position conducive to strategic information is not exactly the same as a network position that yields power, and social network theory has different centrality measures specifically targeted to each of these two benefits.
