Summary
Contents
In this book, leading methodologists address the issue of how effectively to apply the latest developments in social network analysis to behavioural and social science disciplines. Topics examined include: ways to specify the network contents to be studied; how to select the method for representing network structures; how social network analysis has been used to study interorganizational relations via the resource dependence model; how to use a contact matrix for studying the spread of disease in epidemiology; and how cohesion and structural equivalence network theories relate to studying social influence. The book also offers some statistical models for social support networks.
Networks of Elite Structure and Decision Making
Networks of Elite Structure and Decision Making
Over the past two decades, research on power structures at the community and national levels increasingly benefited by incorporating principles, concepts, and methodologies from the social network perspective. Debate among pluralist, Marxist, elitist, corporatist, and state-centric theorists about state structures and processes fundamentally revolves around the existence of a cohesive ruling class, which effectively dominates all the major decisions made by government officials. Each theoretical perspective conjectures about various mechanisms for creating collaborative and oppositional collective actions among state managers, political parties, corporate organizations, interest groups, social movements, mass publics, class segments, and other social formations. Researchers applying network methods produced new insights into political cleavages and coalition formation. Combining reputational, positional, ...
