Analyzing Social Networks

by Stephen P Borgatti, Martin G. Everett, Jeffrey C. Johnson, Filip Agneessens

Overview

Kickstart your research with this practical, bestselling guide to doing social network analysis. Get to grips with the mathematical foundations and learn how to use software tools such as Ne TDraw and UCINET to reach your research goals.

Supporting you step-by-step through the entire research process, from design and data collection to coding, visualisation, and analysis, the book also offers:

• Case studies and examples using real data
• Exercises drawn from the authors’ decades of teaching experience
• Online access to datasets, worked examples and a software manual to help you practice your skills.

Whether you are new to social network analysis or an experienced researcher, this approachable book is your technical toolbox and research companion all in one.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781529609158
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	04/09/2024
Edition description:	Third Edition
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	7.44(w) x 9.68(h) x (d)

About the Author

Stephen P. Borgatti, Ph D is the Gatton Endowed Chair of Management at the Gatton College of Business and Economics at the University of Kentucky. He has published extensively in management journals, as well as cross-disciplinary journals such as Science and Social Networks. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles on network analysis, garnering more than 80,000 Google Scholar citations. With Martin Everett, Steve is co-author of UCINET, a well-known software package for social network analysis, as well as founder of the annual LINKS Center workshop on social network analysis. He is also a two-term past president of INSNA (the professional association for network researchers) and winner of their Simmel Award for lifetime achievement.

Martin Everett is Professor of Social Network Analysis and co-director of the Mitchell Centre for SNA at the University of Manchester. He has published extensively on social network analysis and has over 100 peer-reviewed articles and consulted with government agencies as well as public and private companies. With Stephen Borgatti, Martin is co-author of UCINET, a well-known software package for social network analysis and is co-editor of the journal Social Networks. He is also a past President of INSNA (the professional association for network researchers) and winner of their Simmel Award for lifetime achievement. He was elected as an academician to the UK Academy of Social Sciences in 2004.

Jeffrey C. Johnson, Ph D is University Term Professor of Anthropology at the University of Florida. He is a former program manager with the Army Research Office (IPA), where he started the basic science research program in the social sciences. He has conducted extensive long-term research, supported by the National Science Foundation, comparing group dynamics and the evolution of social networks of over-wintering crews at the American South Pole Station with those at the Polish, Russian, Chinese, and Indian Antarctic Stations. In related research, he has studied aspects of team cognition and social networks on success in simulated space missions. He is a winner of INSNA’s Simmel Award for lifetime achievement. He has published extensively in anthropological, sociological, biological, aerospace, and marine science journals and was the founding editor of the Journal of Quantitative Anthropology, co-editor of the journal Human Organization, and is the author of Selecting Ethnographic Informants (Sage, 1990).

Filip Agneessens is an Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Trento. He has published on a diversity of topics related to social networks, including measures of centrality, statistical models, ego-networks and social support, two-mode networks, negative ties, multilevel networks and issues related to data collection. He has also applied social network analysis to understand the antecedents and consequences of interactions among employees, and in particular within teams. Together with Martin Everett, he was a guest-editor for a special issue on “Advances in Two-mode Social Network Analysis” in the journal Social Networks, and together with Nick Harrigan and Joe Labianca he guest-edited a special issue on “Negative and Signed Tie Networks”. He has taught numerous introductory and advanced social network courses and workshops over the last 15 years.

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 2: MATHEMATICAL FOUNDATIONS
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH DESIGN
CHAPTER 4: DATA COLLECTION
CHAPTER 5: DATA MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER 6: MULTIVARIATE TECHNIQUES USED IN NETWORK ANALYSIS
CHAPTER 7: VISUALIZATION
CHAPTER 8: LOCAL NODE-LEVEL MEASURES
CHAPTER 9: CENTRALITY
CHAPTER 10: GROUP-LEVEL MEASURES
CHAPTER 11: SUBGROUPS AND COMMUNITY DETECTION
CHAPTER 12: EQUIVALENCE
CHAPTER 13: ANALYZING TWO-MODE DATA
CHAPTER 14: INTRODUCTION TO INFERENTIAL STATISTICS FOR COMPLETE NETWORKS
CHAPTER 15: ERGMS AND SAOMS

Editorial Reviews

This is an ideal textbook for teaching and learning social network analysis, as it strikes a good balance between scope and depth, theoretical rationales and technical details, data collection and data analysis. It’s a joy to read!

Keming Yang

The first edition of this fine text has quickly become a leading resource for the conduct of social network research and the analysis of social network data, especially for those researchers using the UCINET software to analyse data. So it is especially valuable to see an updated second edition appearing. This is an indispensable guide for researchers in the collection, analysis and interpretation of social network data.

Garry Robins

Other books are about social networks. Look here for the best introduction to doing network research. If you want to learn to design a network study, analyze networks, and test hypotheses about social connectivity, this is the book for you.

Ronald Breiger

An excellent book for students and established scholars alike who want to seriously get into the analysis of social networks. The authors provide a superb introduction to the field, but also offer the depth that enables the reader to perform state-of-the-art analyses. Each chapter comes with clearly defined learning outcomes and exercises, which makes me recommend this book to all my students. It is one of the best books on the analysis of social networks that I have seen so far.

Thomas Grund

The first edition of this book was a winner … and this edition is even better. The clear writing, the new glossary at the end of the book, and the exercises at the end of each chapter make this edition a wonderful book to teach from. Highly recommended.

H. Russell Bernard

What do rumours, viruses and global trade have in common? They are all transmitted through a network. For some, this is the start of thinking how all networks share similar properties. For me, such platitudes are getting passé; of course networks are everywhere! Finally, this book goes beyond superficial commonalities in networks to provide a coherent framework for the many different kinds of social networks available to the researcher. The authors help us understand which differences matter, how to analyse them and how to make sense of the results. These days its easy to be sold on the power of network analysis, but it is much harder to know which analysis to do and why. Thankfully, Borgatti, Everett and Johnson have given us a text that is as conceptually rich as it is methodologically generous.

Bernie Hogan

We've been waiting for this book for a long time. Masters of their craft, Borgatti, Everett and Johnson guide us through the excitement and challenges of social network analysis. It will be your companion on all of your analytic journeys.

Barry Wellman

This book is a well-written, comprehensive introduction to the must-know techniques of social network analysis. Drawing from their discipline overarching, rich experience with social network data from various backgrounds, the authors make SNA’s concepts and algorithms accessible, turning them into powerful research tools for their readers.

Christian Steglich

The best introduction to the analysis of social networks. All the basic techniques are there, easily digestible and ready to apply to tangible research problems.

Michael Schwartz

'Literature concerning social network analysis has been enriched by one more book dealing with this phenomenon. [...] The examples are drawn from a variety of fields – anthropology, sociology, management, and health care. The book could be useful for a broad range of specialists in different scientific spheres. The book is a general introduction to doing network analysis based on network theory and focused on methodology of research design and data collection'

Stanislava Yordanova Stoyanova

'The authors have divided each chapter into short sections that make it easy to read since they orient the reader to the needed content. Almost all sections are supported with graphs, figures and tables that explain the different research steps a social network analyst should go through starting from the design to the interpretation of results. For the authors to satisfy a larger audience, they have employed a simple language that students, researchers, teachers and practitioners can understand. All in all, the book remains an excellent reference and guide to help a worker in SNA succeed in his analysis especially with the wide number of illustrations, figures and examples present all though the book'

Nadia Idri