4.1 Intro to the book club
4.1.1 What is this book about?
An introduction seminar to network analysis theory and methods, with focus social networks.
The book emphasizes the unity of theory and method in network analysis (check the rich reading list).
4.1.2 Who is the author?
Mark Hoffman, Assistant Professor of Sociology1
Hoffman completed his Ph.D. in Sociology at Columbia University and received his B.A. in Social Research and Public Policy from NYU Abu Dhabi.
His research lies at the intersection of social network analysis, social history, and computational social science
4.1.3 What makes a “network”?
Social network (Facebook, 2017) connections “shape” our world.2
A network is a catalog of a system’s components often called nodes or vertices and the direct interactions between them, called links or edges. This representation, also known as graph, offers a common language to study systems of different natures and scales.3
(a) the Internet, where routers are connected to each other; (b) Hollywood actor network, where two actors are connec; (c) a protein-protein interaction network. (d) graph representation, consisting of N = 4 nodes and L = 4 links. (from Network Science by Albert-László Barabási)
Network analysis focuses on patterns of relations between nodes.
Examples of network analysis domains:
Study the structure of affective links between persons
Study flows of commodities between organizations.
Find shared members between social movement organizations.
Study shared needles between drug users.
What is common across these domains is an emphasis on the structure of relations, which serves to link micro- and macro-level processes.