Leadership elites are found in every community, but the influence of these elite members is usually overlooked. As Sampson states in this chapter, we often think of the top roles such as President of the United States when thinking about elite leaders, but in reality there are countless other elite leaders networked together just below the role of President. I am in agreement with Sampson as to the strong influence elite leaders have on the communities around them.
Earlier on in Great American City, Sampson discusses the positive correlation that exists between the presence of organizations and collective efficacy within a community. Well, at the head of these various organizations sits one or perhaps several leadership elites. Taking this into consideration, it is not surprising to see a very similar correlation between elite leadership ties and collective efficacy within communities (see figure 14.4).
Not everyone is destined to become an "elite" leader, which is why such leaders are considered to be elite. Leadership elites are few in number when compared to the population of the larger community, yet they often contribute more to the group than the average person. I feel like elite leadership ties within and between communities can be compared to the network of neurons within the brain that are responsible for proper function. Leadership elites all play different roles within a community, but collectively they create a synergy that either helps or harms the communities around them. Borrowing from the social journalist Malcolm Gladwell's book, The Tipping Point, I think of leadership elites as what Gladwell would call the "connectors" of society. These are the people that connect communities and contribute to the flow of communication between them. As Sampson states in this chapter, "where leadership connections are concentrated or less fragmented, we find better health and lower violence across the city. " I feel like this is largely due to the increased flow of communication between the sociological institutions within the community. Like a well oiled machine, when all these institutions are communicating, larger goals can be accomplished. I assume that the well-being of the citizens within the community would be one of major concerns for these various institutions.
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Research for my final presentation is going fairly well. I feel like I've finally honed in on a specific topic to research and present for the class. Previous to college, I was involved with an anti-tobacco advocacy group, and the subject has always been of interest to me. By taking the topic of this class and blending it with my emphases in biology and sociology, I feel like I could come up with a solid presentation about smoking. I'm interested in how the presence of collective efficacy and social altruism impact tobacco smoking within the community. Sampson has given us all this data stating that better health is linked to collective efficacy, etc. Taking what we already know, I want to be more specific and find out how these factors influence tobacco cessation efforts within a community.
