Quantitative Social Network Analysis Research Articles

Critical Discourse Network Analysis on Ferdy Sambo News in Online Media Using Agenda Setting Theory

This research aims to analyze the Critical Discourse Network Analysis of the news of the Ferdy Sambo Case on Online Media Portals through Agenda Setting Theory. The research employed a social networking analysis method that combines two elements of methods, namely qualitative content analysis and quantitative social network analysis, to analyze the news using Discourse Network Analysis (DNA) and network visualization using the Visone software application. Qualitative method was also employed to analyze the tendency of Kompas.com in framing the Ferdy Sambo case in the period of August 2022 to February 2023. The data analyzed covered 14 news reports. Based on Agenda Setting Theory, through Media Agenda analysis, Kompas.com emphasized the Ferdy Sambo case has become a cause for concern among the Indonesian people. This was reinforced by the convergence between mainstream mass media and social media; in terms of Public Agenda, Sambo's news, both through mainstream media such as Kompas.com and social media. The Ferdy Sambo case is very popular on social media; in terms of Policy Agenda. The death penalty meted out to Sambo is expected by the majority of Indonesian people. Meanwhile, the DNA test shows that there are 14 news articles with 80 statements from 12 actors. The 14 news articles are categorized into information, statements, decisions and laws, with 29 positive statements and 51 negative statements.This research used Mix Method to analyze the news of the Ferdy Sambo case using Agenda Setting Theory and Discourse Network Analysis (DNA).

Advancing the Measurement of Social Functioning in Schizophrenia: Applications of Egocentric Social Network Analysis.

People with schizophrenia face challenges with forming and maintaining social relationships, often resulting in poor social functioning. Commonly used measures of social functioning provide broad information relating to social relationships, but they do not adequately capture information regarding network structure and characteristics of network members. One method that can assess these more detailed aspects of social networks and provide a more comprehensive understanding of social functioning deficits is egocentric social network analysis (SNA). SNA is a scientific discipline that uses principles of network science and graph theory to analyze social relations quantitatively. Even though some types of SNA have been applied in prior schizophrenia studies, its application as a framework to measure social functioning has been extremely limited. Therefore, this article aims to formally introduce SNA and select quantitative SNA metrics, including measures of network composition, structure, homophily, and centrality, to schizophrenia researchers as novel ways of measuring components of social functioning. To demonstrate the application of SNA, we provide illustrative examples of the SNA metrics and graphical diagrams of social networks for two individuals with schizophrenia.

National Park Service Internal Structures Toward Agency Resilience: A Mixed-Methods, Multi-Site, Mesoscale Investigation

Agencies focused on protected areas’ conservation and recreation require internal capacity-building to enhance their organizational resilience (the ability to adapt and persist). Yet, internal capacity-building is often underemphasized as agencies attend to external relationships. This omission can lessen an agency’s ability to adapt to emergent stressors and opportunities. Specifically, relationships within an agency’s groups (i.e., divisions)—the intra-organizational mesoscale between individuals and whole organizations—can increase an agency’s ability to efficiently build resilience-enhancing adaptive capacity. The U.S. National Park Service (NPS) adopted this mesoscale in their Urban Agenda goal of One NPS, or building resilience-enhancing, agency-wide internal relationships. We investigated intra-organizational relationships in this context, examining relationships within (i.e., bonds) and across (i.e., bridges) three NPS groups: parks (physical spaces), programs (community outreach), and offices (administrative functions). Pairing qualitative interviews with quantitative social network analysis in Detroit, Tucson, and Boston, we examined internal relationship prevalence, supports, and opportunities. The NPS has program and office presence in each of these three urban areas but different proximities to national park units, which are the typical face of the NPS. Across these urban areas, we found that the parks group exhibits more bonds (park-to-park relationships), the programs group exhibits more bridges (program-to-park or program-to-office), and the offices group exhibits a mixture of bonds and bridges. To further One NPS and organizational resilience, cultivating bridges among the three groups is key. This investigation may inform a more strategic focusing of an agency’s limited resources. We highlight five directions for protected area managers’ consideration toward this aim: build bridges locally among groups; consider group composition when identifying divisions (i.e., programs appear more heterogeneous or dissimilar from each other than do the park and office groups); reflect on parks’ centrality to NPS identity and relationships; seek organizational structures supportive of relationship development; and focus on the organizational mesoscale for resilience-enhancing adaptive capacity. These directions for strategic focusing of organizational resources are based in the longstanding work of the NPS but ultimately transcend this single agency, providing targeted guidance for protected area agencies in building internal capacity toward external, public-oriented goals.

The impact of digital technologies on knowledge networks in two engineering organisations.

The management and exploitation of knowledge can contribute to the competitive advantage of an organisation and hence can be a driver of its value. This paper examines knowledge management practices within two engineering organisations with an emphasis on barriers to its effectiveness and the influence of current and anticipated deployment of digital technologies. Two methods were used to gather research data across both organisations by combining a series of semi-structured interviews with a quantitative social network analysis. Examination of the acquired data provided insights into the relationship between the knowledge management culture in both organisations and their adoption of digital tools. Hudson's evolutionary model of safety culture has been modified to describe the culture of knowledge management in an organisation and the acquired data used to locate the two organisations on their knowledge management journey. It is proposed that social networks could be used as an indicator of the stage of evolution of knowledge management in engineering organisations more generally with low network densities and dispersed networks representing higher stages of evolution.

A Quantitative Social Network Analysis of the Character Relationships in the Mahabharata

Despite the advances in computational literary analysis of Western literature, in-depth analysis of the South Asian literature has been lacking. Thus, social network analysis of the main characters in the Indian epic Mahabharata was performed, in which it was prepossessed into verses, followed by a term frequency–inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) transformation. Then, Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) word vectors were obtained by applying compact Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) on the term–document matrix. As a novel innovation to this study, these word vectors were adaptively converted into a fully connected similarity matrix and transformed, using a novel locally weighted K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN) algorithm, into a social network. The viability of the social networks was assessed by their ability to (i) recover individual character-to-character relationships; (ii) embed the overall network structure (verified with centrality measures and correlations); and (iii) detect communities of the Pandavas (protagonist) and Kauravas (antagonist) using spectral clustering. Thus, the proposed scheme successfully (i) predicted the character-to-character connections of the most important and second most important characters at an F-score of 0.812 and 0.785, respectively, (ii) recovered the overall structure of the ground-truth networks by matching the original centralities (corr. > 0.5, p < 0.05), and (iii) differentiated the Pandavas from the Kauravas with an F-score of 0.749.

Utilising qualitative data for social network analysis in disaster research: opportunities, challenges, and an illustration.

An abundance of unstructured and loosely structured data on disasters exists and can be analysed using network methods. This paper overviews the use of qualitative data in quantitative social network analysis in disaster research. It discusses two types of networks, each with a relevant major topic in disaster research-that is, (i) whole network approaches to emergency management networks and (ii) personal network approaches to the social support of survivors-and four usable forms of qualitative data. This paper explains five opportunities afforded by these approaches, revolving around their flexibility and ability to account for complex network structures. Next, it presents an empirical illustration that extends the authors' previous work examining the sources and the types of support and barrier experienced by households during long-term recovery from Hurricane (Superstorm) Sandy (2012), wherein quantitative social network analysis was applied to two qualitative datasets. The paper discusses three challenges associated with these approaches, related to the samples, coding, and bias.

Brokerage in urban networks on diversity and inclusion: The case of Rotterdam

Urban governance research posits a trend towards more cooperation between state and non-state actors. We also know that civil society organizations working on common issues often reinforce each other to secure a stronger voice. However, little research so far brings together urban governance and civil society coordination. This is particularly interesting for the action and policy field of diversity and inclusion, given its constant flux, multi-dimensionality, and political salience, as well as the many competing actors and agendas. Based on an in-depth case study of the city of Rotterdam, this article investigates the relations among organizations that focus on the interests of migrants and other marginalized residents and between these organizations and the municipality. We use qualitative and quantitative Social Network Analysis and draw on 27 semi-structured qualitative interviews as well as 25 network maps carried out with and drawn by representatives of civil society organizations. Our findings show a stratified governance network of actors working on diversity and inclusion in Rotterdam, where only a few large organizations serve as brokers, facilitating exchange but sometimes also reinforcing existing power relations. These findings underscore the importance of critically reviewing the collaborative character of urban governance in practice.

Care and support networks of community-dwelling frail individuals in North West London: a comparison of patient and healthcare workers' perceptions.

Evidence suggests that successful assessment and care for frail individuals requires integrated and collaborative care and support across and within settings. Understanding the care and support networks of a frail individual could therefore prove useful in understanding need and designing support. This study explored the care and support networks of community-dwelling older people accessing a falls prevention service as a marker of likely frailty, by describing and comparing the individuals' networks as perceived by themselves and as perceived by healthcare providers involved in their care. A convenience sample of 16 patients and 16 associated healthcare professionals were recruited from a community-based NHS 'Falls Group' programme within North-West London. Individual (i.e., one on one) semi-structured interviews were conducted to establish an individual's perceived network. Principles of quantitative social network analysis (SNA) helped identify the structural characteristics of the networks; qualitative SNA and a thematic analysis aided data interpretation. All reported care and support networks showed a high contribution level from family and friends and healthcare professionals. In patient-reported networks, 'contribution level' was often related to the 'frequency' and 'helpfulness' of interaction. In healthcare professional reported networks, the reported frequency of interaction as detailed in patient records was used to ascertain 'contribution level'. This study emphasises the importance of the role of informal carers and friends along with healthcare professionals in the care of individuals living with frailty. There was congruence in the makeup of 'patient' and 'provider' reported networks, but more prominence of helper/carers in patients' reports. These findings also highlight the multidisciplinary makeup of a care and support network, which could be targeted by healthcare professionals to support the care of frail individuals.

Second career teachers’ work socialization process in TVET: A mixed-method social network perspective

Bringing together insights from the domains of teacher induction and organizational studies, this study aims to analyze second career teachers’ (SCTs) work socialization into TVET by emphasizing the social dimension of this process, through a mixed-method social network approach. Results of whole school network visualizations, quantitative social network analysis, and interviews show that SCTs have much fewer interactions with colleagues than first career teachers and struggle to find their place within the school. This paper advocates the strengthening of professional networks in TVET schools and more opportunities for novice SCTs to become part of the social fabric of the school.

How China Divides the Left: Competing Transnational Left-Wing Alternative Media on Twitter

Twitter has pushed public opinion on foreign policy into partisan bubbles that often value alternative media sources over traditional media or political elites. Public opinion on China is no exception. On the left, some alternative media outlets support China as a socialist ideal, while others criticize it as a key player in global capitalism and neoliberal order. This leads to an important puzzle: How and why do some transnational left media disseminate pro-China messaging while others do not? We focus on two leftist alternative media outlets: the Qiao Collective and Lausan. Both organizations claim to offer a variety of counter-hegemonic-oriented discourses. We first qualitatively analyze the differences in how these two organizations frame key topics in contemporary Chinese politics including Uyghurs in Xinjiang and the Hong Kong protests. We then use quantitative social network analysis to show how their communication efforts lead to different follower audiences. In the last step, we analyze what issues the Qiao Collective is using to achieve its inward- and outward-oriented goals. Our study shows how both outlets focus on the transnational left, but each reaches distinct audiences that do not overlap. We find that the Qiao Collective jumps on traditional left-wing issues in the US to extend its reach while regularly posting positive, often revisionist perspectives about Chinese politics. This specific element conflicts with its claim of supporting anti-imperialist and pro-democracy politics and distinguishes the Qiao Collective from other transnational left outlets.

Keeping Citizens Informed and Engaged During the COVID-19 Pandemic Using #YoMeInformoPMA: A Case from Latin America

ABSTRACT Social media platforms contribute to the dissemination of information and encourage communication between health agencies and the public, especially during health crises. Public health agencies must engage in carefully crafted educational, communicative, and interactive practices to be effective in their messaging to build relationships with the public. Using quantitative content, social network, and thematic analysis, this study examined 2,500 tweets from April to August 2020 that included the hashtag #YoMeInformoPMA. Panama’s Public Health Ministry created the #YoMeInformoPMA hashtag to keep citizens informed and engaged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research on social media use and implementation in Latin America during the COVID-19 pandemic, to inform and engage the public, is limited. Therefore, the aim of this investigation was to analyze strategies, themes, multimedia formats, key actors, and overall communications patterns of a Latin American health community hashtag. Our results determined that actors using the hashtag #YoMeInformoPMA mainly used an interactive strategy, a message that aims to promote casual conversations, advice, and problem-solving. Findings highlighted evidence of a communication strategy by specific actors in this network, supporting recent studies that indicate engagement between the public and health agencies can take place on social media. Practical implications and recommendations for communication preparation via social media for future health crises are discussed.

Comparative Analysis of American NGOs in China and Chinese NGOs in the U.S.

This article analyzes the activities of American non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in China and Chinese NGOs in the United States in the context of global competition between the United States and China for the leadership in the future model of the world order. In International Relations theory, especially in its theoretical paradigm of realism, the consideration of states as actors in international relations dominates scholarship. However, in recent decades it has become apparent that researchers have a significant interest in non-state actors, such as interest groups and NGOs, and their impact on international relations. NGOs in China and the United States have different historical backgrounds, environments, and government institutions in different ways. Still, but in terms of comparative analysis they represent comparable categories. The analysis offered in this study shows that, firstly, despite the strict regulation of the activities of NGOs in place in China, American NGOs have more opportunities to work in this environment than Chinese NGOs do in the United States, where the situation for their activities is apparently more favorable. Secondly, despite the advantages that partnerships provide, neither American nor Chinese NGOs form partnership networks and therefore, lose momentum for their own development. Thirdly, although the conditions for their activities differ in both countries, American and Chinese NGOs have equal opportunities to pursue their goals. Finally, American NGOs in China are less dependent on their government than Chinese NGOs in the United States are on the Chinese government. The study is comparative and takes as its units of analysis Chinese NGOs in the United States and American NGOs in China. Developments in the field of interest group politics serve as the theoretical framework for this research. The investigation uses methods of comparative quantitative analysis and social network analysis, while the interdisciplinary nature of the methods allow them to take advantage of the analytical capabilities of Comparative Political Science, Interest Group Politics, and International Relations.

Learning spaces in multi-stakeholder initiatives: The German Partnership for Sustainable Textiles as a platform for dialogue and learning?

Learning in collaborative governance is often recognized as an important component for sustainability transformation, but is mainly seen as a side-effect alongside governance outcomes. However, bringing together heterogeneous perspectives is crucial to fully capture the wicked sustainability challenges. We know very little about how learning is facilitated in collaborative governance. This empirical article assesses a multi-stakeholder initiative (MSI) and examines the extent to which it provides spaces for learning. It proposes an analytical framework for investigating social learning spaces along three prerequisites: diversity of member organizations, structure and quality of interactions. A qualitative and quantitative social network analysis (SNA) indicates that the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles (Textiles Partnership) has a large number of heterogeneous members, which holds great potential for learning. However, due to deliberative-democratic structures and the prioritisation of governance outcomes it closes down spaces for learning for the wide diversity of members. The article argues for the design of spaces for learning by emphasising that diversity of perceptions is crucial for a better understanding of the wicked sustainability challenges.

Stakeholder influence and relationships inform engagement strategies in marine conservation

ABSTRACT Many current marine conservation approaches do not adequately consider the diverse social elements and human aspects necessary to achieve conservation outcomes. The results of conservation research are therefore not always useful for conservation managers to apply in practice. To address this gap, this study combines qualitative methods and quantitative social network analysis to help conservation managers gain in-depth insight into social elements of marine conservation and opportunities that can help achieve conservation outcomes. Specifically, using the North West Shelf Flatback Turtle Conservation Program as a case study, our analysis shows that 1) a stakeholder’s position in the turtle conservation network is not the sole or best indicator of their leadership potential to achieve conservation outcomes, 2) peripheral stakeholders are also important for trust, decision-making, and future success, 3) mixed-methods can identify additional opportunities to maintain and further build trust and influence between diverse stakeholders 4) building relationships to support conservation outcomes is accomplished by leveraging stakeholders’ roles in the conservation program. By identifying who has influence and who needs to be involved in marine conservation to achieve success, this study demonstrates the value of mixed-methods research approaches. Specifically, our findings show how social network approaches can help conservation managers and stakeholders strategically build communication and engagement strategies that can be used to achieve conservation outcomes.

A qualitative enhancement to quantitative social network analysis

The literature on social media analytics typically focuses on the social processes within the social media group that is being studied. On the other hand, the subjective views of the social media analysts have received less attention. Here, we demonstrate that the subjectivity of the analyst can have a bearing on both qualitative and quantitative social network analytics. We provide a methodology to analyze the analysts’ subjective frames of reference and their impact on the way they interpret the social group under study and also the social context within their organization that prompted the inquiry in the first place. We offer a methodology for analyzing the types of resources, characteristics, and knowledge held by key influencers in a social media group, and then use the findings to better understand the frames of reference of its members at large. We propose that social media analytics should be carried out by groups of analysts who discuss their individual viewpoints and bring about a “fusion of horizons,” in contrast to the prevalent practice of analysts conducting the analysis alone. We test our methodology with a study of #Blogchat, the largest live chat group on Twitter.

Stakeholder Involvement in Destination Marketing: A Network Analysis of two Destinations in Vietnam

Purpose –This paper aims to identify the stakeholders involved in tourism destination marketing networks. The involvement and collaboration of multiple individuals and organisations is widely recognised in destination marketing to promote a destination. Internal stakeholders of a destination and their collaboration are frequently studied in destination marketing research, but little attention is paid to the involvement of external stakeholders. Design/Methodology/Approach – Quantitative social network analysis is an important approach to understanding stakeholder connections and roles in tourism destinations. In this paper, this analysis was conducted using primary data collected from social network surveys in Da Nang and Hue, two local destinations in central Vietnam. Sixty-nine questionnaires were collected in Da Nang, and 60 questionnaires in Hue. The network data were each analysed separately using UCINET software. Findings – The results show the involvement of different stakeholders in marketing activities in these local destinations. Most of the marketing networks of Da Nang and Hue consist of business units. While the Da Nang marketing network focuses on critical stakeholders and fundamental business firms with strong financial resources and big brands, the Hue marketing network includes more diverse stakeholders and more significant participation of small and medium local firms. Originality of research – This research found the participation of national and international stakeholders located outside the two destinations studied in their marketing network. Their involvement was identified through their collaborative relationships with the DMOs and internal stakeholders of the two destinations to promote the destinations nationally and internationally.

Reimagining the global food regimes for relational spaces

AbstractAs the food regime approach was originally built on the influential world‐system analytical framework, it is worth highlighting human geographers’ efforts to transcend world‐system theory (and the food regime approach) to emphasise how different types of political‐economic processes operate relationally and differentially across regions in the capitalist world. Meanwhile, other geographical perspectives and approaches, such as “critical GIS,” have contributed to the re‐imagination of regions relationally at a range of geographical scales, operating as distinct pathways for commodities over time. Accordingly, drawing on the more‐than‐qualitative relational approach supported by critical GIS and the regional and political geography literature, this paper applies centrality analysis – a quantitative social network analysis – and time‐series analysis to explore and visualise the transformation of the trade networks of high‐value crops in Asia. The paper argues that applying a more‐than‐qualitative relational approach to food regime scholarship can advance our understanding of the emerging regional dynamics in the global food system. Particularly, the findings of this paper show that the rise of China in the global food system has been accompanied by the emergence of Thailand and Vietnam as central actors. Such a multipolar food regime is applicable to address a regional food system, as its regional centrality is defined by clusters of states with more diffuse centrality.

Academic performance and social position analysis of the networks of engineering students

Is there always a statistically positive correlation between academic achievement and social capital? What is the role of individual characteristics in this correlation? The present study combines quantitative Social Network Analysis (SNA) with qualitative interviews to examine these questions among students in a 'bachelor's degree program. The research operationalized students' social capital as friendship ties and social network centralities and correlated these parameters with their academic performance. The study uses and elucidates the relationship between academic performance and social position. It uses this data and qualitative data obtained through in-depth interviews to characterize students who are both academic and social high-performers.

Seeing change in urban informal settlements with social network analysis

This paper examines the changes to social networks of people living in seven informal settlements in Raipur, India, who, in line with the “Indian Alliance” model of community organizing, worked with NGO partners to form local associations in their settlements. These associations were meant to help the participants and their fellow settlement residents to access more secure housing through the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) policy. This paper presents findings from a quantitative social network analysis, demonstrating the impact of the organizing efforts in reshaping their relationship structures and strengthening their agency. These findings were tested for resonance and further fleshed out with qualitative details by going through the analysis with participants. Finally, this paper offers reflections on incorporating technical research methods into organizing and action research interventions, affirming the notion that people living in informal settlements are well placed to generate and make use of sophisticated data on their own communities and cities.

“I'm the Boss, Salesman, Negotiator...Fixer…” – Roles Entrepreneurs Enact in Resource-Acquisition

In seeking resources, entrepreneurs need networks but more than that they need the motivation and ability to enact different roles to capture network resources. We investigate the experiences of nine entrepreneurs by integrating qualitative in-depth, face-to-face interviews and quantitative social network analysis. We examine the network structures in which entrepreneurs are embedded, we identify one default role of Boss, three core roles of Ambassador, Co-creator and Mediator and five specialist roles of Expert, Orchestrator, Trader, Negotiator and Gatekeeper. Default and core roles are enacted by virtue of the entrepreneurs’ position as top executive of their ventures. We find that network characteristic are less important when enacting default and core roles while structural network characteristics influence the enactment of specialist roles as specialist roles are purposefully enacted with clear desired outcomes. Our study is one of few to integrate network structure with entrepreneurs’ role enactment in their pursuit of resources. Our empirical findings suggest that understanding how network structure and actor agency intersect may assist resource-constrained entrepreneurs to be more strategic in seeking effective access to network resource opportunities. Networks provide resource opportunities, but the acquisition of these opportunities requires entrepreneurs’ ambitions and ability to enact different roles in different situations.