Marin and Wellman (2011:11): “a social network is a set of socially relevant nodes connected by one or more relations. Nodes, or network members, are the units that are connected by the relations whose patterns we study.”
A simple explanation: Actors are points, relations are lines.
Focus of analysis:
- Centrality: Typically used to measure power, prestige, influence, popularity
- Connectedness
- Density
- Cliques
- Clusters
Oliver (2014): Characteristics that can be analysed:
- Density. But there is no common reference to what sparse and high destiny actually mean
- Centralisation. But often conflated with hierarchy, and no agreement an what a centralised network means
- Core-periphery
- Micro-structures: clusters, dices, high clustering coefficients, low path length.
Multivocality:
Padgett and Ansell (1993:1263): “the fact that single actions can be interpreted coherently from multiple perspectives simultaneously, the fact that single actions can be moves in many games at once, and the fact that public and private motivations cannot be parsed.”