Social Networks

Social Networks: A Developing Paradigm contains studies of the nature and impact of social structure on behavior. It draws together readings from a variety of social science areas that share the basic premise that structure in social relationships can be fruitfully operationalized in terms of networks. It attempts to bring together classic works that opened new research areas and works that contain important statements of perspective, method, or empirical findings. The book is organized into four parts. Part I focuses on the cognitive organization of social relations and the effects of local social structure on individuals. In Part II the authors consider networks of ties in large social agglomerations, and treat a variety of different types of social relationships. The emphasis here is on empirical studies. Specific extant social networks are investigated to test a variety of structural hypotheses. Part III contains studies that address issues more common among social anthropologists than sociologists or social psychologists. The chapters in Part IV, while occasionally containing applications, are primarily methodological. These discuss mathematical and statistical ideas for modeling and analyzing social networks.