Essays
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Culture and Social Networks - Fuhse, Jan A.
Since the early 1990s, social networks and culture are increasingly seen as intertwined and studied in conjunction. This “cultural turn” of network research is based on the relational sociology of Harrison White and others. It links classical structuralism with cultural analysis. Three approaches to the linkage of culture and social networks can be distinguished: The first traces cultural developments, for example, in science or in art, to network constellations: collective identities arise out of densely connected networks; new styles emerge at the intersection of network clusters from the combination of previously unconnected repertoires. The second approach views social networks themselves as intricately interwoven with culture. Roles in a network (e.g., kinship roles) are built on culturally available blueprints (institutions). As are relationships that varyingly adopt relationship frames such as “love” or “patronage.” Styles and collective identities develop from network constellations and shape them in turn. The third approach analyzes culture itself as a network of symbols and concepts. Their meaning lies in the relations to other concepts and symbols. Network analyses of culture have frequently analyzed the meaning of role categories and of relationship frames, thus linking the three approaches. Areas of particular interest for going forward include research on micro‐events in networks, the interplay of networks with ethnic categories and cultural differences, and the role of networks in societal fields. -
Emerging Trends in Social Network Analysis of Terrorism and Counterterrorism - Knoke, David
A key issue in tracking transnational terror trends is the utility of social network analysis, both as a theoretical perspective and as a methodological toolkit, for understanding and assessing terror organizations, and for developing counterterror policies and practices to detect and disrupt terror attacks. Foundational efforts were case studies of particular groups or operations, culling data from newspaper reports and court trial documents, then creating matrix files for analysis with social network computer programs. Mathematicians, game theorists, and computer scientists are dramatically expanding research beyond foundational case studies of terrorist networks. Much of their work centers on devising strategies for counterterror organizations to destabilize clandestine organizations. They develop elegant and precise mathematical models and computer algorithms, then systematically change parameters to assess capabilities of detecting and disrupting terrorist activities under varying conditions. Key issues for future network research include: conducting rigorous comparative analyses of four historical waves of modern terrorism for clues about the present and future waves; building more comprehensive, cohesive, and integrated theoretical models capable of explaining the formation, structure, and consequences of terrorist networks; developing new methods of measuring network relations among terrorists; performing more laboratory experiments as an alternative to collecting inaccessible and dangerous field observation data; and creating large, high‐quality relational datasets to test social network theories of terrorism. -
Global Economic Networks - Bandelj, Nina
Globalization can be most concretely captured in an investigation of global economic networks. In this essay, we review foundational and cutting‐edge research on global economic networks, including economic ties that result from trade, investment, finance, and remittance relations between corporations and/or citizens from different nations; through flows of people due to migration and global tourism; and via international institutions that govern global economic exchange. We focus on research that examines the determinants and consequences of global economic ties from different theoretical perspectives, such as neoclassical economics, the world‐systems research, global commodity chains, regionalization, and world society perspective. We also review research that maps the structure of the global economy. We end by identifying promising venues for future research. -
How Networks Form: Homophily, Opportunity, and Balance - Lewis, Kevin
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. -
Social Network Analysis in the Study of Ethnic Inequalities - Kalter, Frank
Standard large‐scale survey designs and methods enabled integration research to progress far in recent decades, emphasizing especially the structural aspects of ethnic minorities' integration. To further increase our understanding, the role social aspects play in the complex process of integration merits more attention. Within this endeavor, network analytical designs and techniques provide a particularly promising complement to the standard empirical research agenda. Network analysis provides adequate measures for diverse subaspects of social integration and allows to tackle key open questions and issues, such as disentangling mechanisms of choice from those of opportunity structure or of selection from influence. The use of network analytical tools in integration research corresponds to the more general program of analytical sociology calling for a stronger weight of contexts and social interactions within the next generation of empirical research. While standard survey designs and data sets study integration processes pretty much as if actors behaved in isolation, integration is actually a heavily interactive and highly complex dynamic process. -
The Micro–Macro Link in Social Networks - Stadtfeld, Christoph
Important questions in the social sciences are concerned with the link between micro‐level behavior and aggregate macro‐level outcomes. This essay proposes that studies of the micro–macro link in social systems can utilize conceptual representations and analytical strategies from the field of social networks. In particular, statistical network models and research strategies from agent‐based network modeling can be combined to investigate dynamics and the emergence of structure. An empirical case study illustrates how stochastic actor‐oriented models can be applied as empirically calibrated agent‐based simulations. The fruitfulness of this approach is demonstrated by a Schelling‐inspired case study on the emergence of segregation in social networks. It is shown that even individuals without homophilous preferences may find themselves in segregated structures due to the complex interaction of different network mechanisms. The example thereby illustrates how social networks can serve as a conceptual and analytical framework to study the micro–macro link in dynamic, interdependent, and multi‐mechanistic social systems.