Conversation

To my own point (may be unrelated to point of paper), in academia, I suspect being densely networked within a discipline increases your chances of finishing a PhD, getting a job, getting tenure etc. But being interdisciplinarily densely networked probably worsens chances.
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In the US, I suspect being densely networked within a smaller city and/or sectoral oligarch network gets you a winning GOP ticket more easily, gerrymandered for your convenience. Big city/global network or Pan-sectoral wealth connections (banking etc) gets you Democratic ticket.
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Barabasi is the place to start here. Broadly, you are correct, but there are nuances based on discipline. Note that many disciplines fall into a too small to be international (art), too big to be neighborhood (systems theory) lacuna