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College notes Networks 1 (S_N1)
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College notes Networks Lecture 1 - 12
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Lecture 1: Social of ego, his alters ties omgnetworks in these (including the ego) is
called an ego-network
organizations: An
overview Actors can be connected via:
1. Similarities
Wicked problem: problem that 2. Social relations
is difficult or impossible to solve 3. Interactions
because of incomplete, 4. Flows (of resources)
contradicting, and changing
requirements that are often
challenging to identify.
Social Network Analysis: Q&A
with Steve Borgatti
Ties:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
- Binary (present or absent,
v=kAN-E3u47ys
as in whether two people
What is a Social Network? are friends or not)
- Valued (e.g. by frequency,
A set of nodes (social actors such intensity or strength of ties,
as individuals, groups, or measured on a scale, as in
organizations) and ties
representing some relationships
or absence of a relationship
among the actors.
- The pattern of
relationships defines
actors’ position in the social
structure and proves
strength of friendship)
opportunities and
- Directed (i.e. potentially
constraints that affect the
one-directional, as in giving
acquisition of power
advice to someone
- Each relations defines a
- Undirected (as in being
different network (e.g. the
physically proximate)
friendship network is
distinct from the advice
network, although
empirically they might be
correlated)
- When we focus on a single
focal actor, we call that
actor ego. The set of nodes
that ego has ties with is Types of Social Ties
called alters. The ensemble
State-type ties Event-type ties
,Kinship ties Interactions might be different next week,
(brother of) (giving advice, although art of it don’t change.
sending e-mail)
Other role-based Transactions
ties (boss or (signing treat Important theories
friend of) with, making a
scale) Strength of weak ties
Cognitive (Granovetter, 1973)
(knows)
Affective (likes Strong ties vs weak ties (close
or dislikes) friends vs acquaintances)
The stronger the tie between two
States: have continuity over people, the more likely their social
time. This is not to say they are worlds will overlap – that they will
permanent, but rather that they have ties with the same third
have an open-ended persistence. parties. For example, people tend
They can be operationalized in to be homophiles, meaning that
terms of strength, intensity and they tend to have stronger ties
duration. with people who are similar to
themselves.
Event-type: have a discrete and
transitory nature and can be
countered over periods of time,
they can be operationalized in
terms of frequency and
occurrence.
Realist vs Nominalist Bridging ties (bridges) are a
perspective potential source of novel ideas. A
Realist: there is a ‘true’ bridging tie is a tie that likes a
network of relationships out there, person to someone who is not
and our job as researchers is to connected to his or her other
discover it. Very similar to realist friends
ontology perspective Strong ties are unlikely to be
Nominalist: every network sources of novel information,
question that we as a researcher weak ties are. Thus, one can
ask (e.g. ‘who are you friend conclude that weak ties are likely
with?’ or ‘who do you seed advise to bridges, because bridges are
from?’) generates its own the source of novel information
network. This is more a social
constructionist perspective. So for
example think about your own
network of friends. If I ask you
today who are your friends, this
,Possible exam question: why by the circles in Figure 4). Burt
are strong ties unlikely to be argues that, as a result, A is likely
the source of novel (nieuw) to receive more nonredundant
information? information at any given time
than B, which in turn can provide
A with the capability of performing
Structural holes (Burt, 2004) better or being perceived as the
source of new ideas.
Burt’s Structural holes theory of
Do networks matter?
Why do we actually need
network(s) (theory and
analysis)?
- Networks capture important
social characteristics and
social capita is concerned with dynamics
‘ego networks’, the power of the - Network visualization is
person bridging the hole (‘ego’). extremely powerful
While Granovetter is more about - Networks can show
the opportunity of this bridging otherwise invisible social
connections. structure
The shape of A’s ego network is
likely to afford A more novel
information than B’s ego networkd
does for B, and as a result, A may
perform better in a giving setting,
such as an employee firm. (figure
3)
A’s ties connect to three different
pools of information (represented Networks in organizational
research: major research streams
- Social capital
- Embeddedness
- Network organizations &
organizational networks
, - Board interlocks - The connectionist view: an
- Joint ventures & inter-firm interpersonal process
alliances among those with pre-
- Knowledge management existing social ties using
- Social cognition micro-mechanisms such as
- Group processes modelling (you use your
PDA when I interact with
Networks in organizational
you, so I begin to see myself
research: a review & typology
with one) and congruence (I
Typology of research like you, and you like the
consequences of network factors Lady Huskies
basketballteam, so I like
Social Diffusion them too)
capital (social
(perfor homogeneit Case Study: (In)formal network
mance y) ‘the company behind the charts’
variatio
n)
Structural Structural Environmenta
ist capital l shaping
(typology)
Social Contagion
Connectio access to
nist resources
(flows)
Consequences in this context
means explanatory goals &
mechanisms
- The structuralist view: two
nodes will have similar
outcomes (e.g. adopt the
same point of view) because
they occupy structurally
similar positions, even if
there is no tie connecting
them. For example, we
might expect all people who
are very central in advice
networks to develop
similarly jaundiced views of
the constantly ringing
telephone, even though the
two people are not
connected
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