Structural Holes

To explore the historical case of the Japanese global Sixties and the existence of absence of transnational linkage, the paper takes relational approach, particularly referring to the cultural analysis on network bridging and divide. Analysis on structure of ties has been an influential paradigm in network analysis since its inauguration. A significant contribution in this context was made by Ronald Burt on his eminent concept of structural holes to capture the absence of the ties between different clusters of the network. While his emphasis is on the inequality of social capital among individuals in network setting and the role of broker and entrepreneur who bridges those holes that are disconnected, the structural hole concept provided useful

Cultural relational approach, on the other hand, has suggested that the direction can also be the opposite - individual’s culture and taste create network structure. As Omar Lizardo has examined, people with similar cultural taste (e.g. music genres) are likely to be linked and thus creates network cluster bases on cultural homophily. Such new perspective on the relationship with the structure and culture in networks has also altered the understanding of the structural hole. Through a concept of cultural hole, Pachucki and Breiger suggested the importance of culture for bridging and creating holes between network closure. The cultural hole defined as “contingencies of meaning, practice, and discourse that enable social structure” suggest that on the one hand, similar cultural taste can bridge people embedded in different structural network setting. For instance, Eiko Ikegami has shown in her work on aesthetic network in Edo Japan, it was cultural practices (e.g. tea ceremony, haikai poetry networks,

In conventional network analysis, the structure of linkage and transaction take place within the links are the primary research subject. Thus, each nodes’ individual backgrounds tend to be out of its scope. But the cultural and qualitative approach in relational sociology can contribute toward the understanding of the bridging and creating of holes within the network from deeper analysis on the characteristics of individual actors. Exploring the cultural aspect of the nodes is certainly a crucial direction. But it is also important to explore the biographical background and memory for creating certain cultural taste, identities and practices that has affinity with actors in distance without pre-existing ties. The paper on the one hand explores the cultural significance of network bridging and dividing. However, the movement and activists’ culture and taste itself do not emerge simultaneously. Rather, I understand that it is connected to their biographical background and social structure where the actors are embedded, following Bourdeuian perspective. Thus, in sum, the paper explores the cultural and biographical account for bridging and creating holes in the networks of transnational