ABSTRACT
In a random sample of professional, technical, and managerial job changers living in a Boston suburb, the author asked those who found a new job through contacts how often they saw the contact around the time that he passed on job information to them. He uses this as a measure of tie strength. Any given tie may, hypothetically, be removed from a network; the number of paths broken and the changes in average path length resulting between arbitrary pairs of points can be computed. The significance of weak ties, then, would be that those which are local bridges create more, and shorter, paths. From the individual's point of view, weak ties are an important resource in making possible mobility opportunity. Seen from a more macroscopic vantage, weak ties play a role in effecting social cohesion. A natural a priori idea is that those with whom one has strong ties are more motivated to help with job information.
