106 Ethnic sorting in football of that organization (Popielarz & McPherson, 1995). Consequently, homogeneous organizations that occupy a small area in social space are able to recruit members with similar characteristics quite easily, but they will struggle to recruit members that are different. On the other hand, organizations that are relatively heterogeneous and thus more dispersed over social space may be able to fish from a larger pond of potential recruits, although they have more trouble pulling these individuals in due to a lower share of members with similar characteristics. This dynamic gives rise to what McPherson (1983) has described as an ecology of affiliation in which organizations’ ability to both recruit and retain members is (in part) a function of the extent to which the social compositions of organizations overlap. Namely, organizations that are diverse and therefore dispersed over social space will have trouble recruiting members that are more similar to members of competing organizations. Furthermore, due to homophily, members that are positioned in the social periphery of organizations will not only have fewer ties pulling inward, but also more ties pulling outward, making it harder to retain such members. These outward ties will pull directly or indirectly towards more similar organizations or groups, which may include other football clubs. As such, football clubs directly compete with one another for members based on their sociodemographic composition by either recruiting members that other clubs weren’t able to recruit or retain, or through motivating members to change organizations by being a better fit. Popielarz and McPherson (1995) note that the natural consequence of this intraorganizational competition for members through homophilic tie-formation is social specialisation. In order to retain members and survive over time, organizations tend to cater more to certain sociodemographic groups and less to others. This leads to the formation of organizational ‘niches’ within social space, the boundaries of which are set primarily by the vicinity of other competing organizations. Social disarray in social space While McPherson’s model of an ecology of affiliation is primarily based on the homophily principle, the previous chapter has shown that in addition to low ingroup shares, high degrees of outgroup heterogeneity also harm member retention in amateur football clubs. I have described this effect as the social
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