An Information Flow Model for Conflict and Fission in Small Groups

Abstract

Data from a voluntary association are used to construct a new formal model for a traditional anthropological problem, fission in small groups. The process leading to fission is viewed as an unequal flow of sentiments and information across the ties in a social network. This flow is unequal because it is uniquely constrained by the contextual range and sensitivity of each relationship in the network. The subsequent differential sharing of sentiments leads to the formation of subgroups with more internal stability than the group as a whole, and results in fission. The Ford-Fulkerson labeling algorithm allows an accurate prediction of membership in the subgroups and of the locus of the fission to be made from measurements of the potential for information flow across each edge in the network. Methods for measurement of potential information flow are discussed, and it is shown that all appropriate techniques will generate the same predictions. THE PROBLEM OF HOW and why fission takes place in small bounded groups has long been a central issue in social anthropology, even though the small groups studied have often been described under some other rubric, such as kinship. Fission in kinship groups has been studied from a variety of perspectives, especially those of descent theory