Social and spatial networks: Kinship distance and dwelling unit proximity in rural Thailand

• Published in: Social networks 2012, Vol.34 (1), p.112-127
• Main Authors: Verdery, Ashton M., Entwisle, Barbara, Faust, Katherine, Rindfuss, Ronald R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Co-residence; Interpersonal relations; Kinship; Kinship Networks; Motivation; Rural Areas; Saturated networks; Social networks; Space; Spatial proximity; Thailand; Villages
• ISSN: 0378-8733; 1879-2111
• DOI: 10.1016/j.socnet.2011.04.003

► Preferred proximity to kin may determine people's residential locations. ► Kin live nearer to each other than non-kin as do close kin than less close kin. ► Co-residence accounts for much of the kinship–proximity relationship. ► Social networks affect the spatial distribution of individuals. ► The effect of network ties on residential proximity is ripe for additional research. We address a long hypothesized relationship between the proximity of individuals’ dwelling units and their kinship association. Better understanding this relationship is important because of its implications for contact and association among members of a society. In this paper, we use a unique dataset from Nang Rong, Thailand which contains dwelling unit locations (GPS) and saturated kinship networks of all individuals living in 51 agricultural villages. After presenting arguments for a relationship between individuals’ dwelling unit locations and their kinship relations as well as the particulars of our case study, we introduce the data and describe our analytic approach. We analyze how kinship – considered as both a system linking collections of individuals in an extended kinship network and as dyadic links between pairs of individuals – patterns the proximity of dwelling units in rural villages. The results show that in general, extended kin live closer to one another than do unrelated individuals. Further, the degree of relatedness between kin correlates with the distance between their dwelling units. Close kin are more likely to co-reside, a fact which drives much of the relationship between kinship relatedness and dwelling unit proximity within villages. There is nevertheless suggestive evidence of a relationship between kinship association and dwelling unit proximity among kin who do not live together.