Pas de Deux: Social Networks and Network Analysis

Abstract

The study of social networks and social net work analysis have come a long way since Jacob Moreno's work was the subject of a news report in the New York Times on 3 April 1933. The headline read Emotions Mapped by New Geography, with the subheadlines Colored Lines Shows Likes and Dislikes of Individuals and of Groups. MANY MISFITS REVEALED. While researchers have yet achieve Moreno's ambition to chart a map of the psychological geography of New York City, they have made many notable advances. The annual conference for the field's main professional association, the Inter national Network for Social Network Analysis, has grown from 35-50 people, when it started in the early 1980s, 550 participants in the 2008 conference. Social network analysis draws attention from economists, political sci entists, criminologists, sociologists, anthropol ogists, epidemiologists, public health officials, the management and business community, communication researchers, computer and information scientists, the military intelligence community, and, recently, physicists. Empiri cal studies range from how position in a net work can impact outcomes experienced by occupants of those positions-obesity, entre preneurship, sexual dysfunction, drug adop tion, advice seeking, high tech firm success explanations of why ties form in the first place. For certain applications, how identify subgroups in a larger network is a high prior ity research question. The state of the art in social network analysis was codified by Wasserman and Faust in their 1994 book Social Network Analysis: Methods and Appli cations (Cambridge University Press), and is still a valuable resource. Since then, a number of books have been published on network analysis with the two reviewed here among the more recent examples. The titles of the two edited books give the game away. The first book's title, Network Analysis: Methodological Foundations, does Network Analysis: Methodological Foun dations, edited by Uhrik Brandes and Thomas Erlebach. New York, NY: Springer, 2005. 471pp. $79.95 paper. ISBN: 9783540249795.