Bio: (1930-2024) American sociologist. Harrison White holds a doctorate in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.d. in sociology from Princeton University. He was a professor of sociology at Princeton University, the University of Chicago, Harvard, and Columbia. White made many significant contributions to network theory, using mathematical models. The focus of his study is the real interconnectedness of actors who are at a level above the simple group but below the level of the whole society. In the book An Anatomy of Kinship (1963), White uses algebraic modeling of social relations, where the social structure consists of "structures of cumulated roles" of individuals. He formulates eight axioms that connect the structure of the Australian Aboriginal clan with their rules of marriage. Later, he extended this model to apply to the institutions of the modern West and thus came to the ideal-type model of all possible societies that correspond to these axioms. Finally, he compares his model with available anthropological data.

In the book Chains of Opportunity (1970), he creates an "algebra" of semi-groups, to make his earlier scheme applicable to organizations and informal groups in a modern, Western context. He defines role structures as the positions of social actors through multiple networks of social relations (such as friendship, hostility, and providing assistance). White uses the concept of duality to denote the invariant in models of social structures and processes that relate to cases where individuals change their positions within the workplace or change jobs. Free positions, not individual persons, are what, indeed, have the freedom to move between categories toward fixed transitional probability. Therefore, conventional mobility models should be applied to the analysis of vacancies, not directly to the mobility of individuals. White applied this scheme of analysis to the study of the mobility of priests between Episcopal, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches. Career vacancies are not only dual but have a causal priority over the careers of individuals. White introduces the term "structural equivalence", which refers to groups of individuals who are in similar positions in relation to other such groups of individuals, so it is possible to aggregate their relationships and mutual changes through multiple networks of relationships. This equivalence allows complex networks, which are obtained by aggregation of equivalent actors, to be presented in the form of "reduced-form images".

In the article "Social Structures from Multiple Networks" (1976), White further simplifies mathematical modeling and applies it to many cases of analysis of social networks. The goal of this modeling, which is called "blockmodeling", is to create an image of a specific social structure through the analysis of the relationship between social positions and social roles within multiple networks. In Identity and Control (1992), White focuses on action, actors, cultural meanings, and institutional practices. The search for and struggle for identity and control are taken as occasions for overall social action. He observes the connections in the networks in their narrative aspect, which leads to the social network being viewed as a network of meaning. In the book Markets from Networks (2002), White states that classical economic models were too abstract. Contrary to such models, he strives to present an economic model of market functioning that would be more based on empirical data, but which would also theoretically connect any particular market with broader, global, economic relations. White is also known for creating his theory of artistic production, and for his theory of language use which emphasizes switching between cultural, social, and idiomatic areas within networks of discourse.

Main works

An Anatomy of Kinship: Mathematical Models for Structures of Cumulated Roles (1963);

Chains of Opportunity: System Models of Mobility in Organizations (1970);

“Social Structure from Multiple Networks”, in American Journal of Sociology (1976);

Identity and Control: A Structural Theory of Social Action (1992);

Careers and Creativity: Social Forces in the Arts (1993);

Markets from Networks: Socioeconomic Models of  Production (2002).