How Networks Form: Homophily, Opportunity, and Balance
Title
How Networks Form: Homophily, Opportunity, and Balance
Author
Lewis, Kevin
Research Area
The Individual and Society
Topic
Social Networks
Abstract
Owing to rapid advances in available data and methods, social network analysis has recently been propelled into a new era: Instead of documenting patterns in static network structures, we are increasingly able to pinpoint the principles governing the evolution of these structures as well as how they emerged in the first place. In this essay, I trace the contours of this new trend. First, I describe foundational research on three mechanisms of network generation that have received particular attention in the literature: homophily, opportunity constraints, and structural balance. Next, I outline cutting‐edge research that has built on this foundation. In just the past several years, scholars have broadened prior approaches into larger, encompassing analytic frameworks; disentangled the various underlying processes that give rise to observed patterns in network structures; and distinguished between attribute‐driven network change and network‐driven attribute change—all largely thanks to advances in modeling tools that have overcome prior obstacles and enabled theoretical progress. Finally, I discuss three directions for future research. While recent scholarship has revolutionized our understanding of network dynamics, our grasp of how tie‐generating mechanisms operate and interact remains comparatively shallow; counterintuitive divisions exist between major sites of relational research and there remains much room for comparative work; and for all the promise of computational social science, there is risk that this movement will return us to the descriptive techniques of prior days but on a much larger scale.