Weak tie is a term suggested by Mark Granovetter in "The strength of weak ties" (The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 78, No. 6., May 1973) as the ties in a social network that are not strong. Strong ties are those such as kin relations and close personal friends, while weak ties are loose acquaintances such as those connections made at a party. The theory builds on work by Robert Putnam in Bowling Alone and is described as bridging social capital, the capital that ties groups together. Mark Granovetter is a sociologist who considered among other things a model how fads build. ... A social network is a map of the relationships between individuals, indicating the ways in which they are connected through various social familiarities ranging from casual acquaintance to close familial bonds. ... Robert David Putnam (born January 9, 1941 in Rochester, New York) is a political scientist and professor at Harvard Universitys Kennedy School of Government, well-known for his writings on civic engagement, civil society, and social capital, a concept of which he is probably the leading exponent. ... Summary of Robert D. Putnams “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital” In his essay “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital” (Journal of Democracy, January 1995, Volume 6, Number 1) the author Robert D. Putnam surveys the decline of “social capital” in the United States of America since... Social capital refers to the collective value of all social networks and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do things for each other, according to Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone and the concepts leading exponent (though not its originator). ...