Social Networks (original) (raw)
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Aishe J the All Ireland Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 2014
Social network analysis (SNA), once a remote out-post in the realm of sociology research is suddenly in vogue. Everyone has heard of social networking and everyone is doing it - at least when we take it to mean connecting with virtual friends on Facebook, Twitter or the latest, trending social networking app through the smart-phone which has become permanently affixed to our hands. But in the social and, indeed, natural sciences, tools that allow us to study the interconnections between the components of complex systems are yielding powerful new insights as to how these systems function. How I make and break friendships might seem of little relevance to society at large, except for perhaps to my own happiness, but when an entire social grouping is studied in terms of the social links that connect the people in that society, it transpires that we can make inferences about how allegiances are formed, how rumours spread, which people are most influential and why. These inferences can be applied by businesses to better target customers for their services, or to better organise their management structures to allow better decisions to be made more quickly, to to identify the most valuable people in their organisation. Social network analysis has entered the realm of big business.
Encyclopedia of Technology and Politics, 2022
Social network analysis (SNA) gives us the tools to examine how social relationships form, how they are organized, and how their structure affects our choices and actions. This interdisciplinary line of research is informed by both the social and the natural sciences. Early works in this area focused on descriptive characteristics, developing metrics to identify key individuals, capture important network attributes, or discover closely knit subgroups and communities. Today, network analysis often aims to explain how social ties influence behavior and how our actions change the structure of interpersonal networks. Advances in information technology have also played an important role in the development of the field. Digital platforms have changed the nature of human social structures, as well as enabling the development of new analytical tools and data collection strategies.
Social Networks Analysis: Tools, Measures and Visualization
2012
Social Network Analysis (SNA) is becoming an important tool for investigators, but all the necessary information is often available in a distributed environment. Currently there is no information system that helps managers and team leaders monitor the status of a social network. This chapter presents an overview of the basic concepts of social networks in data analysis including social network analysis metrics and performances.
Social Networks Analysis: Theory and Methods
2005
Course Description This workshop covers the theory and methods of network analysis. It is designed for students, faculty, and other researchers in the social and behavioral sciences who are interested in understanding the breadth and depth of the social network approach and in learning how to translate theoretical conceptualizations of networks into empirical practice. Morning and afternoon sessions are coordinated so that each day presents theoretical, historical and substantive developments in the field with parallel issues and examples in data and analytic techniques.