科研贴士 | 社交网络分析的概念与应用

问

什么是社交网络分析？

“社交网络分析”可不是我们第一反应所联想到的“社交媒体分析”。它是社会科学研究的一个领域，分析个人与个人、个人与群体、群体与群体之间紧密交织的关系和形式，由此评估社会关系的影响，在社会生活的多个方面都有广泛的应用。

答

什么是社交网络分析

What Is Social Network Analysis?

ISBN：978-7-5446-6420-2

出版时间：2020-09

作者：(英) 约翰·司各特 （John Scott）

定价：30.00元（限时优惠：21.00元）

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目录

本书简介

本书向非专业读者介绍了社交网络分析的主要思想、性质和研究目的。社交网络在诸多层面——从家庭到国家层面——运作，在确定问题的解决方式、组织的运作方式以及个人在多大程度上实现目标等方面发挥着关键作用。社交网络理论描绘出个体参与者之间的复杂关系。尽管该理论较新颖，它已经在社会科学领域产生了巨大的影响。

本书基于定量社会学的先验知识，通过示例和插图在语境中介绍了社交网络分析的关键思想。作者约翰·司各特（John Scott）使用结构化方法来引导读者理解该领域的研究，为读者指明拓展阅读和在线资源以发展他们的知识和技能，使他们能够将该方法应用于实践。本书还有一系列常见问题解答，让读者了解针对社交网络分析的主要反对意见，读者在阅读本书后可能产生的各种疑问也将得到解答。

社交网络分析的定义

Social network analysis conceptualises individuals or groups as ‘points’ and their relations to each other as ‘lines’. It is concerned with the patterns formed by the points and lines and involves exploring these patterns, mathematically or visually in order to assess their effects on the individuals and organisations that are the members of the 'networks’ formed by the intersecting lines that connect them. lt therefore takes the metaphorical idea of interaction as forming a network of connections and gives this idea a more formal representation in order to model structures of social relations. Treating a social structure as a network is the cornerstone of social network analysis.

社交网络分析的关键概念与方法

Key Concepts and Measures

01

Collecting network data

Relational data for social network analysis can be collected through a variety of methods. These include asking questions about the choice of friends, observing patterns of interaction and compiling information on organisational memberships from printed directories. All such methods require that an appropriate selection of cases be made from the total range of possible data sources. In many studies this will involve a complete or near complete, enumeration of a whole population.

02

Graph theory and egocentric measures

True to its origins in sociometry, uses of graph theory tend to employ the language of points and lines to describe the patterns of connection in a social structure. Its various concepts and measures aim to convey the properties of the visual image of a sociogram. Visualisation is difficult for large and complex networks, but the visual imagery behind the basic concepts of graph theory can help us to imagine the more complex structures of which they are the building blocks. Sociograms are arbitrary aesthetic representations that maintain only the patterns of connections and not any information about physical distance and relative location. The mathematical language of graph theory is, similarly, an attempt to grasp and summarize merely the pattern of connections.

03

Graph theory and global measures

While egocentric measures are always focused on a particular point––ego––the overall, or global properties of a network can also be assessed. The connections of particular individuals concatenate to produce a more or less cohesive structure of relations that is unlikely to have been intended by any of the participants. Graph theory provides a set of concepts for analysing these macro-level properties of social networks.

04

Graph theory and network differentiation

The global measures considered so far are attempts to measure different aspects of the cohesion of a graph understood as its compactness. An alternative strategy is to focus directly on the differentiation or fragmentation of a graph in order to uncover the plurality and diversity of its structure. Such a strategy recognises that connected points in a graph may not be connected as a single whole but may instead be connected into a number of distinct structural parts of the whole network. Two broad approaches to the differentiation of networks into subgraphs can be identified: the measurement of components and the measurement of cliques. Each of these types of subgraph has distinct properties.

05

Algebraic measures of network structure

Algebraic methods represent the points of a graph in sets that correspond to social positions’ and that can be handled in equations or analysed in matrices. I have traced the origins of this approach to social network analysis in the works of Warner and Homans. The most important recent developments in algebraic network analysis have been those inspired by Harrison White and his work on 'structural equivalence'.

06

Spatial and cartographical approaches

Spatial approaches such as smallest space analysis and multidimensional scaling are attempts to plot points in a spatial field through geometrical methods that allow the construction of sociograms as true ‘maps’ showing a configuration of points that depicts their relative physical distance and spatial direction as well as retaining information on the familiar path distances and line directions. As with blockmodelling, spatial approaches start out from measures of similarity (or dissimilarity) but use cartographical techniques to produce a best-fit configuration in which the relative similarities among points correspond directly to the relative physical distances that can be shown on paper or a computer screen.

07

Statistical inference

Much work in social network analysis has been both static and descriptive. Recent work, however, has shown how it is possible to move towards dynamic understandings of social change and to construct explanations of the patterns described. This has led to much greater attention being given to statistical methods for assessing the significance of results and the validity of explanations. This work follows the general and well-established principles of statistical inference and hypothesis testing, adapting these to the specific requirements of using relational data.

社交网络分析的应用

Applications of Network Analysis

Diffusion and the flow of information and resources

Diffusion studies are concerned with how the flow of information and attitudes about new practices and techniques are shaped by the structures of the networks in which intercommunicating individuals are involved. The earliest writer to highlight the need to investigate diffusion in this way was the French lawyer and criminologist Gabriel Tarde who saw imitation as the basic psychological mechanism responsible for this diffusion... Interaction, he argued, is grounded in the natural tendency for individuals to imitate the behaviour of those who are psychologically close to them and with whom they identify. Thus, interaction is necessarily a process in which individuals behave, intentionally or unintentionally, in ways that those they encounter may either take up or ignore. Innovations made by one individual are therefore subject to selective retention and replication, much as genetic variations are selectively replicated in Darwinian theory.

Citation studies and the sociology of science

A long tradition of research has outlined the use of publication patterns and, especially citation patterns, to map forms of social organisation in science. Building on suggestive research into the importance of ‘scientific communities’ and groups of scientists in the formulation and growth of scientific knowledge (Kuhn1962; Price 1963), Diana Crane (1972) was one of the first to use ideas from diffusion research to explore scientific innovation, the formation of scientific specialisms, and their basis in processes of recruitment, promotion and co-authorship.

Interlocking directorships and corporate power

Studies on the role of company directors have a long history in social science, though its immediate origins were in journalistic and political investigations of the concentration and abuse of economic power. Directorships have long been seen as sources of power. A directorship in a company, or corporation, is a position at the top of a company that confers legal authority over its assets and employees on its occupant. Holding directorships in two or more companies proportionately increases the power of the individual concerned. Thus, tabulations of the number and distribution of directorships has been seen as a way of charting the degree to which corporate power is concentrated in the hands of a small number of individuals or families.

作者简介

John Scott

普利茅斯大学社会学教授和研究部分管副校长。英国科学院院士（Fellow of the British Academy）、社会科学学会院士（Academician of the Academy of Learned Societies in the Social Sciences）和皇家艺术学会院士（Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts）。最近的出版物包括Conceptualising the Social World和The Sage Handbook of Social Network Analysis（与 Peter Carrington 共同主编），均出版于 2011 年。

丛书简介

“‘什么是’研究方法系列”深入浅出地介绍社会科学中的常用研究方法和问题。丛书主题涉及社交网络分析、在线研究、话语分析、日记法、质性研究、质性访谈、质性研究伦理、定量纵向数据分析等领域。每一分册均以“什么是……”命名，围绕一个主题，梳理该领域发展概况，阐释关键术语，介绍前沿成果或通过案例分析展示该研究方法的实际应用情况，并通过推荐书目或参考书目为读者延伸阅读提供指导。各分册作者均为相关领域的资深研究者，思路清晰，言简意赅。

相信本丛书的出版能够满足对社会科学研究感兴趣的读者的阅读需求，引领他们进入社会科学研究的学术园地。

END

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