Triangulation of

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Triangulation of network metaphors
Andrea Scharnhorst, Iina Hellsten The Virtual
Knowledge Studio, Amsterdam
Paper given at the EXYSTENCE topical workshop
Innovation networks new approaches in modeling
and analyzing, Augsburg October 2005. Do not
cite without prior permission of the author/s.
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The Network hype
COMPLEX NETWORK,S Web of science
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The context of networks
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What is a network for .
Social scientists A social network is a
description of the social structure between
actors, mostly individuals or organizations. It
indicates the ways in which they are connected
through various social familiarities ranging
from casual acquaintance to close familial bonds.
The term was first coined in 1954 by J. A.
Barnes (in Class and Committees in a Norwegian
Island Parish, "Human Relations").
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network
Actors and their actions are viewed as
interdependent rather than independent,
autonomous units. Relational ties (linkages)
between actors are channels for transfer or
flowof resources Network models focusing on
individuals view the network structural
environment as providing opportunities for or
constraints on individual action. Network models
conceptualize structure (social, economic,
political , and so forth) as lasting patterns of
relations among actors (Wassermann, Faust, p.4)
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What is a network for

• Economists
• The network effect causes a good or service to
  have a value to a potential customer dependent on
  the number of customers already owning that good
  or using that service. Metcalfe's law states that
  the total value of a good or service that
  possesses a network effect is roughly
  proportional to the square of the number of
  customers already owning that good or using that
  service.
• One consequence of a network effect is that the
  purchase of a good by one individual indirectly
  benefits others who own the good - for example by
  purchasing a telephone a person makes other
  telephones more useful. This type of side-effect
  in a transaction is known as an externality in
  economics, and externalities arising from network
  effects are known as network externalities. This
  is also an example of a positive feedback loop.
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_externality
• Interaction and the networks through which it
  operates are important in determining aggregate
  economic phenomena and and that this allows us to
  start from more plausible models of individuals
  If this is accepted, then we must first
  understand how networks influence aggregate
  outcomes. The next step is to understand how
  these networks form and if, and why, they
  persist. (Kirman, Handbook, 274)

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What is a network for

• Physicists
• Complex networks are the backbone of a complex
  system. They are special
• networks at the edge of chaos where the degree of
  connectivity is neither
• regular nor random. The most complex networks of
  the real world are either
• small-world networks or scale-free networks at
  the border between regular and
• random networks, between order and randomness.
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_network
• Recent results on the topology of real networks
  indicate the emergence of a new paradigm the
  apparent randomness of complex systems with many
  degrees of freedom hides generic mechanisms and
  order that are crucial to the understanding of
  the interwoven world surrounding us. (Barabasi,
  Handbook, p. 69)
• Mathematicians
• In mathematics, a network is usually called a
  graph.
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetworkMathematics

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Struggle among disciplines

• In all the recent discussions about the
  relationship between physics and sociology in the
  study of social networks, the fundamental issue
  seems to have been lost sight of. The important
  issue is not whether the two disciplines can or
  should cooperate. That is essential and it
  happens frequently. Contributors to the
  discussion have pointed out many fruitful and
  important cases, and the history of sociology is
  full of many others. The big problem arises when
  academics from one discipline move into the area
  of another discipline without trying to discover
  what work has already been done by its
  practitioners. At best they reinvent the wheel.
  At worst they antagonise people with their
  intellectual arrogance.
• This is what has happened with much of the recent
  work on small worlds physicists have argued that
  their methods and theories can illuminate social
  networks but have failed to realise that a whole
  community of sociological network researchers
  already exists and has done exactly the kind of
  work that they are pointing to. Their books claim
  to have made startling discoveries about the
  social world and advocate the development of new
  research programmes on these topics. Their
  reviewers take these claims at face value and so
  a reputation for intellectual novelty is built
  up.
• It is surely a basic failure of normal scholarly
  research procedures that these books can be
  written and published without the author
  undertaking any proper literature search. The
  author of one recent book expounding the novelty
  of the 'power law' does not seem to realise that
  sociological work over many years has documented
  the existence of this kind of distribution in
  many real social networks. None of this is cited.
  Its author does not seem to have discovered the
  existence of journals on social networks, nor
  does he seem to realise that INSNA exists and
  that the cover design of its newsletter shows a
  network with a power law structure. This same
  book is based around the author's research into
  internet search engines, but it doesn't seem as
  if he has ever typed the words 'social networks'
  into Google or any other search engine.
• If I were to come up with the idea that familiar
  theories from sociology could illuminate problems
  in physics, the first thing I would do would be a
  literature search to see if anybody, in physics
  or elsewhere, had already worked on the issue.
  Physicists who followed the same strategy when
  they wished to contribute something to social
  analysis, might find that they would be welcomed
  more warmly by their social science colleagues.

Posting SOCNET list, 10.2.2005
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Network as a metaphor

• Our aim is to trace different notions of a
  network in a metaphorical sence across domains of
  use
• We argue that by triangulating various approaches
  to network as a metaphor, we are able to shed
  light on the different underlying theoretical and
  methodological assumptions that sometimes block
  the possibly fruitful interaction between the
  different research traditions.
• The metaphor of network functions as circulating
  device (boundary object) across different domains
  of use

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Metaphor research

• Metaphors are dynamic and flexible tools of
  translation between different domains
• Metaphors often provide a common ground
  concerning terminology and knowledge
• In science they might function as heuristic
  devices helping to generate novel ideas.
• Metaphors as (stable) units of circulation
  between discourses vs. Metaphors as (dynamic)
  units changing discourses

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Metaphors in science

• Open up common ground for debates (even if the
  participants of such a debate do not always agree
  on the meanings of the metaphor) and triggers
  interdisciplinary discussions
• Can be traced by systematically discussing which
  elements of the metaphor are used in the
  different domains of use.
• Are used in the emergence of new ideas (trading
  zone).

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Network as metaphor

• To be able to trace network as a metaphor we
  will look at the context and the purpose with
  which network functions as a place holder for
  different conceptual approaches.
• We will discuss the advantages and the
  limitations of the use of the network in
  different sc. disciplines or domains of use.
• We will introduce dimensions/characteristics of
  the metaphor network.
• We will use these dimensions to differentiate
  between the different approaches but also to
  point to possible cross sections between them.

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How to map the different concepts?
Network as a constraint for other dynamic
processes (dynamics on networks, dynamics of
networked agents)
Network evolution as a result of individual
actions
Network topology as a characteristics of the
function of the system
Network as a collective phenomena of individual
actions
Network as a constraint/enabling for individuals
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Possible dimensions of the network metaphor
Large size
System
Dynamic
Collaboration networks over time
Scale-free networks
Characteristics/structure of a network
Network as product of a process
Network as function in a process
Processes of change, growth and evolution of a
network
Egonetworks
Static
Individual
Small size
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Linked metaphors What is an innovation?

• ECONOMICS/SOCIAL SCIENCES
• Innovation is the implementation of a new or
  significantly improved idea, good, service,
  process or practice which is intended to be
  useful.
• Invention/innovation, radical and incremental
  innovations, process and product innovation,
  competition and logistic growth

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Linked metaphors What is an innovation?

• SYSTEMS THEORY
• Innovation is a critical event which
  destabilizes the current state of the system and
  opens a new process of self-organization leading
  to a new stable state
• The definition of an innovation bases on the
  definietion of the borders of the systems
  (innovation in a firm, innovation in a market),
  also the emergence of new scientific specialties,
  new streams of communication, new ways of
  behaviour are systemic innovations.

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Linked metaphors Network and innovation ?

• A part of a network?
• A new node or a new link?
• A new node which destabilizes the whole network
  (critical event or sensitive networks)?
• A product/outcome of a network?
• Which type of network?
• Which type of relations building the network?
• An event of a dynamics taking place on a network
  topology?
• Epidemics on networks -gt Criteria for success
• Innovations triggering dynamical processes on
  networks as critical event
• Which types of network topologies support
  innovations?

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Conclusions 1

• Metaphors can be used to trace the development of
  new specialties and cross-disciplinary
  communications.
• The network metaphor focuses the attention to the
  complexity between the parts and the whole. It
  also allows to address the dualism between
  structure and action.
• While analysing the different context of the
  network metaphor we determine dimensions of the
  metaphor in a multidimensional space of meanings.

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Conclusions 2

• Triangulation in the metaphor space allows to
  point to hot spots and blind spots in the
  scientific uses of the network metaphor.
• Semantic maps combined with bibliometric analysis
  (frequency of occupation of areas in the metaphor
  space) could be a tool to make the space visible.