Abstract
McPherson’s Blau space and affiliation ecology model is a powerful tool for analyzing the ecological competition among social entities, such as organizations, along a combination of sociodemographic characteristics of their members. In this paper we introduce the R-based Graphical User Interface (GUI) package Blaunet, an integrated set of tools to calculate, visualize, and analyze the statuses of individuals and social entities in Blau space, parameterized by multiple sociodemographic traits as dimensions. The package is able to calculate the Blau statuses at the nodal, dyadic, and meso levels based on three types of information: sociodemographic characteristics, group affiliations (e.g., membership in groups/organizations), and network ties. To facilitate this, Blaunet has the following five main capabilities, it can: 1) identify a list of possible salient dimensions; 2) calculate, plot, and analyze niches for social entities by measuring the social distance along the salient dimensions between individuals affiliated with them; 3) generate Blau bubbles for individuals, thereby allowing the study of interpersonal influence of similar others even with limited or no network information; 4) capture niche dynamics cross-sectionally by calculating the intensity of exploitation from the carrying capacity and the membership rate; and 5) analyze the niche movement longitudinally by estimating the predicted niche movement equations. We illustrate these capabilities of Blaunet with example datasets.
Highlights
Blaunet is based on two fundamental concepts in sociology: Blau space and affiliation ecology
Blau space rests on the idea that human beings can be represented in a k-dimensional space, where continuous sociodemographic characteristics such as age, income, and years of education serve as the dimensions
We begin by discussing a tool we developed for constructing Blau space
Summary
Blaunet is based on two fundamental concepts in sociology: Blau space and affiliation ecology. Blau space rests on the idea that human beings can be represented in a k-dimensional space, where continuous sociodemographic characteristics such as age, income, and years of education serve as the dimensions. The dimensions that structure Blau space are socially salient (i.e., they influence association probabilities) and are referred to as Blau parameters [1, 2] in honor of the eminent sociologist Peter Blau. Each person’s attributes on the Blau parameters define his or her location in the Blau space, which in turn results in the individual’s affiliation to social entities such as organizations, cultural tastes, and political preferences, while those entities are more or less competing with one another in this space.
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