Abstract
We review three decades of research linking social network methods with world systems theory. We identify four themes nested within two versions of a general social network methodologythe identification of network Roles and Position. The themes vary by the type of data and the definition of equivalence used to identify roles and positions. Second, we provide a demonstration of the general methodological approach taken in the literature, applying a recent methodological innovation to a newly compiled large global trade dataset. The results identify the expected core/periphery interaction pattern, suggesting that it is a fundamental feature of cross-national trade data, regardless of how the data are analyzed. We conclude by suggesting both methodological and substantive directions for future social network research on the world-system.
Highlights
At the center of the world-systems perspective is the intuition that structure matters
Space limitations preclude an exhaustive treatment of possible methodological applications to the study of the world-system, so we focus instead on the general approach taken in the classic lineage of the literature—the analysis of Roles and Positions, as well as introducing a recent variant—the Exponential Distance Model (EDM) that bears a relationship to some older techniques that have not made their way into world-systems research
This paper reviewed two lineages of empirical research on the world-system that utilize social network methods
Summary
At the center of the world-systems perspective is the intuition that structure (is all that) matters. These include studies that (1) assess the extent to which crossnational relational data exhibit a core / periphery structure; (2) delineate boundaries between core, periphery and semi-periphery; (3) adjudicate between the core / periphery distinction as categorical or continuous; and (4) assess the hypothesis that some form of “unequal exchange” occurs across zones of the world-system. Matrix, and proceed with the rest of the steps outlined in figure 1 (Breiger 1981; Wasserman and Faust 1994:368-9)
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