Structural Integration of Rural Governance Networks under Issue Differentiation: Relational Differentiation, Positional Alignment, and Cross-Period Persistence in Six Ethnic Village Groups (A–F) in Southwest China
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70088/kqc14z98Keywords:
Rural Governance, Multilayer Networks, Relational Multiplexity, Network Integration, Ethnic Minority Regions, ChinaAbstract
Rural governance consists of multiple issue-specific relations: information consultation, production assistance, public cooperation, major-decision influence, and dispute mediation each occupy distinct action contexts and may involve different contacts. Existing scholarship usually interprets the integration of governance networks through tie reuse or the linkage of formal organizations, but seldom asks how integration remains possible once issue relations have differentiated. Drawing on three-wave multilayer nomination data from 270 roster-fixed actors in six ethnic village groups of the study region, this article distinguishes tie-level edges from actor-level positions. Cross-layer edge Jaccard similarity among the five public-affairs relations ranges only from 0.034 to 0.044, indicating substantial differentiation of concrete ties. Cross-layer in-degree Spearman correlations, however, average 0.476 to 0.539, exceeding stratified permutation benchmarks that preserve village group, ethnicity, and role composition; the cross-period Spearman correlation of the composite positional ranking exceeds 0.737. Network integration therefore does not require the same edge to carry multiple functions; it can take the form of different issues converging on similar actor positions. The analysis moves the study of network integration from relational content to the level of social position.References
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