Inhoudsopgave
Overview lectures Social Networks....................................................................................................2
Lecture 1 Introduction to the course..............................................................................................2
Lecture 2 Research Design & Data Collection + Data Representation & Centrality........................5
Lecture 3 Ethical Aspects of Social Network Research....................................................................8
Lecture 4 Actor-level Foundations of Social Networks – L&M’s Homophily Paper.......................10
Lecture 5 Informal groups, two-mode networks..........................................................................15
Lecture 6 Social Capital & Personal Networks..............................................................................17
Lecture 7 Global network indices - Subgroup detection in networks...........................................24
Lecture 8 Hierarchy structures in networks..................................................................................28
Lecture 9 Networks and organisations.........................................................................................30
Lecture 10 Roles and positions in social networks & Equivalence concepts and blockmodels.....32
Lecture 11 Small worlds, large networks......................................................................................34
Lecture 12 Diffusion and Peer Influence in Social Networks.........................................................40
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, Overview lectures Social Networks
Lecture 1 Introduction to the course
Literature: HS1, 10 + slides
The exam is focused on understanding and applying/creating network concepts, not on
remembering!
AHow would you approach this problem?’ (transfer of book knowledge to new problem), ’ (transfer of book knowledge to new problem), transfer of book knowledge to new problem),
AWhat does the following mean?’ (transfer of book knowledge to new problem), ’ (transfer of book knowledge to new problem), interpretation of given research results), AWhat do you
think about the following?’ (transfer of book knowledge to new problem), ’ (transfer of book knowledge to new problem), reflection on given research).
Network research is appropriate whenever the detailed functioning of a social system is studied. Not
just the actors of the system and their individual properties (transfer of book knowledge to new problem), composition), but how they relate to
each other (transfer of book knowledge to new problem), structure). Compared to other disciplines, network research has been labelled holistic,
non-reductionist, organic, or explanatory. Characteristics are the interdependencies between the
different actors in the system, modelled as connections.
Allen Barton’s meat grinder: why are social networks so
useful? Because if you want to express a social system’s
functioning, you do not use methods that rely on
independence assumptions, and zoom in on
interdependencies, and not on interdependent units. (transfer of book knowledge to new problem), ?’ (transfer of book knowledge to new problem), )
Clear message:
If you want to express a social system’s functioning, …
1. do not use methods that rely on independence
assumptions, and
2. increase granularity (korreligheid, denk aan inzoomen op afbeelding) in interdependencies,
not inside interdependent units
Universal principle:
We can (transfer of book knowledge to new problem), re)construct an entity by zooming in to a finer grain of analysis and adjust the elements on
this finer level to produce the desired effect.
In our case, “the desired effect” would be a deeper understanding of the social system under study.
So the meat grinder isn’t the right way, because survey data can’t reveal anything about how social
systems work. However, the network approach can.
Social network research typically focuses on the informal, emergent phenomena.
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