1 - Introduction
Network Analysis Today
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 September 2023
Summary
Stop. Take a moment to look around. What do you see? No matter where you are, you are likely perceiving a world consisting of things. Maybe you are reading this book in a coffee shop, and if so, you probably see people, cups, books, chairs, and so on. You see a world of objects with properties, yourself included: white cups are on wooden tables, people sitting in chairs are reading books and talking with one another. At the same time, you are a subject, responding to this world and actively bringing yourself and these objects into interrelation. And yet, the world of objects with properties that you are perceiving is but one slice of a complex reality.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Network AnalysisIntegrating Social Network Theory, Method, and Application with R, pp. 1 - 16Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023
References
Suggested Further Reading
Barabási, Albert-László. 2002. Linked: The New Science of Networks, Cambridge MA: Perseus Press. (Provides an interesting systems-science foil for social science approaches. Barabasi, Watts, and Newman are key figures in the late 1990s rise of “network science” as distinct from social network analysis. See also Watts 2003; Newman 2018.)Google Scholar
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Easly, David, and Kleinberg, Jon. 2010. Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning about a Highly Connected World. New York: Cambridge University Press. (An overview introduction with a focus on network science approaches to economic and financial questions.)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeman, Linton C. 2004. The Development of Social Network Analysis: A Study in the Sociology of Science. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: Empirical Press. (Provides a rich history of the development of social network analysis as a substantive discipline.)Google Scholar
Jackson, Matthew O. 2008. Social and Economic Networks. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. (Brings economic modeling/theory to networks.)Google Scholar
Kadushin, Charles. 2011. Understanding Social Networks: Theories, Concepts and Findings. New York: Oxford University Press. (A substantive introduction to structural theories of social life, with clear applications. The “ten master ideas” chapter, in particular, provides a succinct summary of why networks are fundamental to understanding social processes.)Google Scholar
Light, Ryan, and Moody, James. 2020. The Oxford Handbook of Social Networks. New York: Oxford University Press. (A broad overview covering multiple contemporary topics by field experts.)Google Scholar
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Watts, Duncan J. 2003. Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age. New York, Norton. (A substantive introduction to the network science approach. See also Barabási 2002; Newman 2018.)Google Scholar
Wellman, Barry. 1988. “Structural Analysis: From Method and Metaphor to Theory and Substance.” In Social Structures: A Network Approach, edited by Wellman, Barry and Berkowitz, S. D.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (A nice introduction to the what and why of networks.)Google Scholar
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Borgatti, Stephen P., Everett, Martin G., and Johnson, Jeffrey C.. 2018. Analyzing Social Networks. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Press. (Clear and concise methods text for applied network analysis; extended in 2022 in collaboration with Filip Agneessens to include direct instruction in R.)Google Scholar
Knoke, David, and Yang, Song. 2021. Social Network Analysis, 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. (The third edition of Knoke’s text [the first was in 1982], each with different collaborators. An excellent quick-start guide to applied network analysis.)Google Scholar
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Scott, John. 2012. Social Network Analysis, 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. (This has been the quick go-to reference text since its first edition in 1991.)Google Scholar
Wasserman, Stanley, and Faust, Katherine. 1994. Social Network Analysis. New York: Cambridge University Press. (The “Big Red Book” that sits on all our shelves; provides an encyclopedic history of the field and foundational methods works. Many of us keep copies in each of our offices.)CrossRefGoogle Scholar