International Journal of Contemporary Sociology  Volume 54  No. 2, October 2017 INFORMATION DIFFUSION THROUGH FUNCTIONAL BRIDGES: A REFINEMENT AND TEST OF THE “STRENGTH OF WEAK TIES” THEORY Durmus A. Yuksek Turkish Military Academy ABSTRACT Granovetter’s (1973) Strength of Weak Ties (SWT) theory associates strong ties with group solidarity and trust and weak ties with access to valuable resources, and places more importance on weak ties since they provide non-redundancy to social groups. Prior research offers significant evidence to support the arguments of the SWT theory. However, the SWT theory has limitations and requires some modifications. To fill these gaps, this study presents a refined version of the SWT theory and tests its applicability to the diffusion of cultural and job information using data from the 2002 General Social Survey. The evidence from the ordered logistic regression analyses is largely consistent with the predictions of the refined SWT theory. Implications of the findings are discussed. 1. INTRODUCTION Since the publication of Granovetter’s (1973) inspiring piece, The Strength of Weak Ties (SWT), many studies have confirmed the utility of strong and weak ties for the diffusion of resources and information (Lin, Ensel, and Vaughn 1981; Friedkin 1982; Brown and Reingen 1987; Burt 1992; Granovetter 1995; Crowell 2004; Yakubovich 2005; Kadushin 2012; Marsden and Campbell 1984, 2012; Ryan 2016). Drawing upon Granovetter’s SWT theory, these studies have suggested that strong ties are socially valuable since they promote group solidarity and trust, while weak ties, especially those that connect otherwise unconnected social circles, are more valuable since they promote access to non-redundant resources from diverse segments of a social network. Although many studies have investigated the network benefits of social capital through focusing on how one’s social contacts provide him/her useful non-redundant information (in line with the SWT theory), the SWT theory has limitations and requires some modifications. For