Social Network Analysis

249 Pages·2017·5.145 MB·English

by  John Scott

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Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne
4th Edition
John Scott
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ANALYSIS
SAGE Publications Ltd  John Scott 2017
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This edition 2017
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Contents
List of Figures ix
About the Author xi
Preface to the Fourth Edition xiii
1 What is Social Network Analysis? 1
The data used in social network analysis 3
Is there a network theory? 6
An overview 8
2 The History of Social Network Analysis 11
The sociogram and sociometry 13
Balance and group dynamics 16
Informal organisation and community relations 20
Matrices and cliques 25
Formal models of community and kinship 29
Formal methods triumphant 34
Getting by without the help of your friends 35
Entry of the social physicists 37
3 Data Collection for Social Network Analysis 41
Asking questions 42
Making observations 44
Using documents 45
Boundaries in relational data 46
Positional and reputational approaches 48
Does sampling make sense? 50
4 Organising and Analysing Network Data 57
Matrices and relational data 59
Matrix conventions 63
vi contents
An analysis of directorship data 64
Direction and value in relational data 66
Computer programs for social network analysis 69
5 Terminology for Network Analysis 73
The language of network analysis 74
More than joining up the lines 76
The flow of information and resources 79
Density of connections 81
Density in egonets 84
Problems in density measures 85
A digression on absolute density 87
Community structure and density 89
6 Popularity, Mediation and Exclusion 95
Local and overall centrality 96
Mediation and betweenness 99
Centrality boosts centrality 100
Centralisation and graph centres 101
The absolute centre of a graph 105
Bank centrality in corporate networks 107
7 Groups, Factions and Social Divisions 113
Identifying subgraphs 114
The components of a network 115
The strength and stability of components 117
Cycles and circuits 119
The contours of components 122
Cliques within components 127
Intersecting social circles 130
Components and citation circles 132
8 Structural Locations, Classes and Positions 137
The structural equivalence of points 138
Clusters and similarity 140
Divide and CONCOR 142
Divisions and equivalence 148
Regular equivalence in roles and functions 150
Corporate interlocks and participations 152
contents vii
9 Social Change and Development 157
Structural change and unintended consequences 158
Small-world networks 160
Modelling social change 161
Testing explanations 162
10 Visualising and Modelling 167
Taking space seriously 168
Using multi-dimensional scaling 170
Principal components and factors 174
Non-metric methods 177
How many dimensions? 180
Worth a thousand words? 183
Elites, communities and influence 184
Business elites and bank power 188
Notes 195
References 207
Index 225

List of Figures
1.1 Types of data and analysis 6
2.1 The lineage of social network analysis 13
2.2 A sociogram: the sociometric star 15
2.3 Balanced and unbalanced structures 18
2.4 A Hawthorne sociogram 22
2.5 A table of cliques 25
2.6 Matrix rearrangement 27
3.1 Networks and sampling: the ideal 52
4.1 A data matrix for variable analysis 59
4.2 A simple matrix and sociogram 60
4.3 Matrices for social networks 61
4.4 Matrix conventions: best practice 64
4.5 Matrices for interlocking directorships 65
4.6 Levels of measurement in relational data 67
5.1 Alternative drawings of a graph 77
5.2 A directed graph and its matrix 78
5.3 Lines and paths 79
5.4 Density comparisons 82
5.5 Measures of density in egonets 85
5.6 Absolute measures in a graph 88
5.7 Density of personal networks 91
6.1 Local and global centrality 98
6.2 A highly centralised graph 103
6.3 The structural centre of a graph 105
6.4 Peaks and bridges 109