SOCY609: Practicum in Social Research—Social Network Analysis   Neustadtl—Fall 2000

 

Social network analysis is a way of conceptualizing, describing, and modeling social collectivities as sets of entities (people and/or groups) linked to one another by specific characteristics like perceptions, attitudes, behaviors, and traits.

 

Both an approach and a method for the analysis of social structure, network methods also use advanced statistical techniques.  The social network approach has been applied to a variety of topics, from the position of the Medici family in Florence in the Middle Ages to the spread of AIDS, from the activities of economic elites to how people get jobs.  In this course you will learn network methods, learn how to use a computer program designed to do network methods, and read a variety of articles in major journals that have used network analysis.  In addition, you will participate in a class network research project.

 

The readings for each week typically consist of chapters from a textbook and journal articles.  In the first part of the course we will read and discuss a number of applications of social network analysis as well as data collection issues.  In the second part, we will learn more about the mathematics and statistics of network analysis, including how to use some computer programs.

 

 

For Sociology graduate students, this course satisfies either the advanced statistics requirement (the “third course”) or a research methods requirement.