SOC%208311%20Basic%20Social%20Statistics

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• SOC 8412
• SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS
• THEORY METHODS
• Prof. David Knoke
• Fall 2009

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SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS

• An interdisciplinary perspective emphasizes
  structural relationships as key explanatory
  concepts principles
• Structural properties of social formations are
  contexts that shape the perceptions, beliefs,
  attitudes, and actions of individuals and
  collectivities
• Social influence and collective action may be
  facilitated and/or constrained by direct and
  indirect exchanges (transactions) among social
  actors possessing differential resources (e.g.,
  information, money, power, grace)
• Embeddedness (location of actors within actual
  situational contexts) must be analyzed as dynamic
  processes

Contrast these structural-relational approaches
to substantialist explanations premised on
thing-concepts as basic unit of analysis actor
essence, self-action, normative conformity,
rational choice, variable-centric, and social
identity approaches (Emirbayer 1997)
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Theories Methods
Network research involves the continual interplay
of both theoretical and methodological tools to
investigate a wide range of substantive
questions THEORY Analytic concepts, principles,
interrelated propositions that explain empirical
observations
? Relational vs substantive perspectives
(Emirbayer 1997) ? Social capital theories
(Coleman 1990 Lin 2001) ? Structural holes (Burt
1997) ? Organizational field-nets (Kenis Knoke
2002)
METHODS Measures, data, computer techniques to
test theoretical propositions
? Matrix algebraic methods (Wasserman Faust
1994) ? Visualization programs (Freeman 2000)
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Multi-level Interdisciplinary

• Network applications appear in diverse
  substantive fields of most social sciences
  anthropology, management, public health,
  sociology, economics (but political science?)
• Studies span micro-, meso-, macro-levels of
  analysis
• personal social health support systems
• childrens play groups, high school cliques
• neighboring behavior, community participation
• work teams, voluntary associations, social
  movements
• military combat platoons, terrorist cells
• corporate strategic alliances, board interlocks
• international relations trade, aid, war peace

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(Projected)
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Network Analysis Origins
Although antecedents lie in 1920s (Freeman 1996),
Jacob L. Moreno pioneered social network analysis
for his psychodrama therapy. He used
sociomatrices and hand-drawn sociograms to
display childrens likes and dislikes of
classmates as directed graphs (digraphs).
Visualization has been a key component of social
network analyses from the beginning,
proliferating into todays dazzling
computer-based multidimensional displays (Freeman
2001)
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Morenos sociomatrix
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displayed as a sociogram
What structure is evident in his arrangement of
squares and circles?
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Colorado Springs Sexual Contact Network
SOURCE James Moody. http//www.soc.sbs.ohio-state
.edu/jwm/
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The 9-11 Hijacker Network
SOURCE Valdis Krebs http//www.orgnet.com/
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OECD Trade Flows 1981-1992
SOURCE Lothar Krempel http//www.mpi-fg-koeln
.mpg.de/lk/netvis.html
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Org-chart shows how authority ties should look
SOURCE Brandes, Raab and Wagner (2001)
lthttp//www.inf.uni-konstanz.de/brandes/publicat
ions/brw-envsd-01.pdfgt
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but the digraph of actual advice-seeking
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can be restructured to reveal the real
hierarchy!
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Anthropologists
In 1950s, social anthropologists at Manchester
University extended sociometric techniques to
studies of families, kinship, and friendship
networks in urban settings of both advanced and
developing societies ? Elizabeth Bott, Max
Gluckman, J. Clyde Mitchell, S.F. Nadel John
Barnes credited with applying analytic rigor to
concept of social network. He saw the whole of
social life as a set of points some of which
are joined by lines to form a total network of
relations. The informal sphere of interpersonal
relations was a partial network within this
total network (Barnes 195443).
A detailed history of network analysis appears in
John Scott. 1991. Social Network Analysis A
Handbook. London Sage. lthttp//www.analytictech.c
om/mb119/tableof.htmgt
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Conflict in an African Factory
SOURCE Kapferer, Bruce. 1969. Norms and the
Manipulation of Relationships in a Work Context
in Social Networks in Urban Situations Analyses
of Personal Relationships in Central African
Towns, edited by J. Clyde Mitchell.
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Digraphs of Donald Abraham
SOURCE Stephen J. Appold, University of
Singapore http//courses.nus.edu.sg/course/socsja/
SC2202/Labor/Employee3a.html
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Sociologists
In 1970s, sociologists at Harvard, Chicago,
Toronto elsewhere applied finite mathematical,
graph theoretic, clustering, and spatial modeling
methods to uncover small group structures and
community networks ? Conflict among novice monks
in a monastery (White et al 1976) ? Cleavages in
urban political networks (Laumann Pappi 1976) ?
Community lost, preserved, or extended? (Wellman
1979) By 1990s, network analysis had
proliferated to business management, public
administration, law, and related fields ?
Strategic alliance networks (Gulati 1995) ?
Self-managed work teams (Barker 1999)
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Strategic alliances in the 1998 core GIS
SOURCE David Knoke. 2001. Changing Networks.
Boulder, CO Westview.
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INSNA
Institutionalization achieved with the 1978
founding of the International Network for Social
Network Analysis and journal Social Networks
lthttp//www.insna.orggt
Sunbelt Social Network Conferences are held
annually in North America or Europe (2009 San
Diego, CA 2010 Trento, Italy)
EGOS (European Group on Org Studies) annual
colloquium has a Standing Group on Organizational
Network Research (2009 Barcelona 2010 Lisbon)
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References
Barker, James R. 1999. The Discipline of
Teamwork Participation and Concertive Control.
Thousand Oaks, CA Sage Publications. Barnes,
John. 1954. Class and Committees in a Norwegian
Island Parish. Human Relations 739-58. Bott,
Elizabeth. 1957. Family and Social Network
Roles, Norms, and External Relationships in
Ordinary Urban Families. London
Tavistock. Freeman, Linton C. 1996. Some
Antecedents of Social Network Analysis.
Connections 19 39-42. Freeman, Linton C. 2000.
Visualizing Social Networks. Journal of Social
Structure lthttp//zeeb.library.cmu.edu7850/JoSS/a
rticle.htmlgt (July 24, 2002). Gulati, Ranjay.
1995. Social Structure and Alliance Formation
Patterns A Longitudinal Analysis.
Administrative Science Quarterly
40619-652. Laumann, Edward O. and Franz Urban
Pappi. 1976. Networks of Collective Action A
Perspective on Community Influence Systems. New
York Academic Press. Mitchell, J. Clyde. 1969.
Social Networks in Urban Situations Analyses of
Personal Relationships in Central African Towns.
Manchester Manchester University Press.
Moreno, J. L. 1934. Who Shall Survive?
Washington Nervous Mental Disease Publishing
Co. White, Harrison C., Scott A. Boorman and
Ronald L. Breiger. 1976. Social Structure from
Multiple Networks, I Blockmodels of Roles and
Positions. American Journal of Sociology
81730-780. Wellman, Barry. 1979. The Community
Question The Intimate Networks of East Yorkers.
American Journal of Sociology 841201-1231.