Ivaylo D. Petev - Networks

Topics in Quantitative Sociology

Fall 2020 ENSAE

Social networks

The development of social network analysis (SNA), in which sociologists play a central role, provides a gateway to the identification of fundamental structural determinants of social behavior. To appreciate the power of SNA, we examine its contribution to the study of job searches.

Background readings

Watts, 2004, ARS, “The new science of networks”

Optional readings

Doreian, 2001, SMR, "Causality in social network analysis"
Emirbayer, 1997, AJS, "Manifesto for a relational sociology"
Fuhse & Mutzel, 2011, QQ, "Tackling connections, structure, and meaning in networks. Quantitative and qualitative methods in sociological network research"
Pachucki & Breiger, 2010, ARS, "Cultural holes. Beyond relationality in social networks and culture"
Snijders, 2011, ARS, "Statistical models for social networks"
Wolfer & al., 2015, GDTRP, "Social network analysis in the science of groups. Cross-sectional and longitudinal applications for studying intra- and intergroup behavior"

Case-study for reading and commentary

Rajkumar & al., 2022, Sci, "A causal test of the strenght of weak ties"

The authors analyzed data from multiple large-scale randomized experiments on LinkedIn’s People You May Know algorithm, which recommends new connections to LinkedIn members, to test the extent to which weak ties increased job mobility in the world’s largest professional social network. The experiments randomly varied the prevalence of weak ties in the networks of over 20 million people over a 5-year period, during which 2 billion new ties and 600,000 new jobs were created. The results provided experimental causal evidence supporting the strength of weak ties and suggested three revisions to the theory. First, the strength of weak ties was nonlinear. Statistical analysis found an inverted U-shaped relationship between tie strength and job transmission such that weaker ties increased job transmission but only to a point, after which there were diminishing marginal returns to tie weakness. Second, weak ties measured by interaction intensity and the number of mutual connections displayed varying effects. Moderately weak ties (measured by mutual connections) and the weakest ties (measured by interaction intensity) created the most job mobility. Third, the strength of weak ties varied by industry. Whereas weak ties increased job mobility in more digital industries, strong ties increased job mobility in less digital industries.
Commentaries: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Case-studies for written reviews

Apicella, Coren L., Frank W. Marlowe, James H. Fowler, and Nicholas A. Christakis. 2012. “Social Networks and Cooperation in Hunter-Gatherers.” Nature 481(7382):497–501. doi: 10.1038/nature10736.
Baldassarri, Delia, and Mario Diani. 2007. “The Integrative Power of Civic Networks.” American Journal of Sociology 113(3):735–80. doi: 10.1086/521839.
Behler, Rachel L. 2017. “You Can’t Always Get What You Want: Network Determinants of Relationship Inactualization in Adolescence.” Social Science Research 61:181–94. doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2016.06.012.
Benton, Richard A., and Jihae You. 2017. “Endogenous Dynamics in Contentious Fields: Evidence from the Shareholder Activism Network, 2006–2013.” Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World 3:2378023117705231. doi: 10.1177/2378023117705231.
Block, Per, Marion Hoffman, Isabel J. Raabe, Jennifer Beam Dowd, Charles Rahal, Ridhi Kashyap, and Melinda C. Mills. 2020. “Social Network-Based Distancing Strategies to Flatten the COVID-19 Curve in a Post-Lockdown World.” Nature Human Behaviour 4(6):588–96. doi: 10.1038/s41562-020-0898-6.
Broadbent, Jeffrey et al. 2016. “Conflicting Climate Change Frames in a Global Field of Media Discourse.” Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World 2:2378023116670660. doi: 10.1177/2378023116670660.
Browning, Christopher R., Catherine A. Calder, Brian Soller, Aubrey L. Jackson, and Jonathan Dirlam. 2017. “Ecological Networks and Neighborhood Social Organization.” American Journal of Sociology 122(6):1939–88. doi: 10.1086/691261.
Browning, Christopher R., Brian Soller, and Aubrey L. Jackson. 2015. “Neighborhoods and Adolescent Health-Risk Behavior: An Ecological Network Approach.” Social Science & Medicine 125:163–72. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.06.028.
Centola, Damon M. 2013. “Homophily, Networks, and Critical Mass: Solving the Start-up Problem in Large Group Collective Action.” Rationality and Society 25(1):3–40. doi: 10.1177/1043463112473734.
Centola, Damon, and Michael Macy. 2007. “Complex Contagions and the Weakness of Long Ties.” American Journal of Sociology 113(3):702–34. doi: 10.1086/521848.
De Nooy, Wouter. 2003. “Fields and Networks: Correspondence Analysis and Social Network Analysis in the Framework of Field Theory.” Poetics 31(5–6):305–27. doi: 10.1016/S0304-422X(03)00035-4.
DiPrete, Thomas A., Andrew Gelman, Tyler McCormick, Julien Teitler, and Tian Zheng. 2011. “Segregation in Social Networks Based on Acquaintanceship and Trust.” American Journal of Sociology 116(4):1234–83. doi: 10.1086/659100.
Eagle, Nathan, Michael Macy, and Rob Claxton. 2010. “Network Diversity and Economic Development.” Science 328(5981):1029–31. doi: 10.1126/science.1186605.
Erickson, Bonnie H. 1996. “Culture, Class, and Connections.” American Journal of Sociology 102(1):217–51. doi: 10.1086/230912.
Faust, Katherine. 2006. “Comparing Social Networks: Size, Density, and Local Structure.” Advances in Methodology and Statistics 3(2). doi: 10.51936/sdbv3216.
Faust, Katherine, and John Skvoretz. 2002. “8. Comparing Networks across Space and Time, Size and Species.” Sociological Methodology 32(1):267–99. doi: 10.1111/1467-9531.00118.
Flache, Andreas, and Michael W. Macy. 2011. “Small Worlds and Cultural Polarization.” The Journal of Mathematical Sociology 35(1–3):146–76. doi: 10.1080/0022250X.2010.532261.
Foster, Jacob G., Andrey Rzhetsky, and James A. Evans. 2015. “Tradition and Innovation in Scientists’ Research Strategies.” American Sociological Review 80(5):875–908. doi: 10.1177/0003122415601618.
Ghaziani, Amin, and Delia Baldassarri. 2011. “Cultural Anchors and the Organization of Differences: A Multi-Method Analysis of LGBT Marches on Washington.” American Sociological Review 76(2):179–206. doi: 10.1177/0003122411401252.
Godechot, Olivier. 2014. “Getting a Job in Finance. The Strength of Collaboration Ties.” European Journal of Sociology 55(1):25–56. doi: 10.1017/S0003975614000022.
Goldberg, Amir. 2011. “Mapping Shared Understandings Using Relational Class Analysis: The Case of the Cultural Omnivore Reexamined.” American Journal of Sociology 116(5):1397–1436. doi: 10.1086/657976.
Gould, Roger V. 1991. “Multiple Networks and Mobilization in the Paris Commune, 1871.” American Sociological Review 56(6):716. doi: 10.2307/2096251.
Grund, Thomas U. 2016. “The Relational Value of Network Experience in Teams: Evidence From the English Premier League.” American Behavioral Scientist 60(10):1260–80. doi: 10.1177/0002764216643133.
Grund, Thomas U., and James A. Densley. 2015. “Ethnic Homophily and Triad Closure: Mapping Internal Gang Structure Using Exponential Random Graph Models.” Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 31(3):354–70. doi: 10.1177/1043986214553377.
Kelly, Brian C., Mike Vuolo, and Alexandra C. Marin. 2017. “Multiple Dimensions of Peer Effects and Deviance: The Case of Prescription Drug Misuse among Young Adults.” Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World 3:2378023117706819. doi: 10.1177/2378023117706819.
Kossinets, Gueorgi, and Duncan J. Watts. 2009. “Origins of Homophily in an Evolving Social Network.” American Journal of Sociology 115(2):405–50. doi: 10.1086/599247.
McFarland, Daniel A., James Moody, David Diehl, Jeffrey A. Smith, and Reuben J. Thomas. 2014. “Network Ecology and Adolescent Social Structure.” American Sociological Review 79(6):1088–1121. doi: 10.1177/0003122414554001.
Moody, James, Daniel McFarland, and Skye Bender‐deMoll. 2005. “Dynamic Network Visualization.” American Journal of Sociology 110(4):1206–41. doi: 10.1086/421509.
Moody, James, and Douglas R. White. 2003. “Structural Cohesion and Embeddedness: A Hierarchical Concept of Social Groups.” American Sociological Review 68(1):103–27. doi: 10.1177/000312240306800105.
Papachristos, Andrew V., David M. Hureau, and Anthony A. Braga. 2013. “The Corner and the Crew: The Influence of Geography and Social Networks on Gang Violence.” American Sociological Review 78(3):417–47. doi: 10.1177/0003122413486800.
Powell, Walter W., Douglas R. White, Kenneth W. Koput, and Jason Owen‐Smith. 2005. “Network Dynamics and Field Evolution: The Growth of Interorganizational Collaboration in the Life Sciences.” American Journal of Sociology 110(4):1132–1205. doi: 10.1086/421508.
Ruef, M. 2002. “Strong Ties, Weak Ties and Islands: Structural and Cultural Predictors of Organizational Innovation.” Industrial and Corporate Change 11(3):427–49. doi: 10.1093/icc/11.3.427.
Schaefer, David R., and Derek A. Kreager. 2020. “New on the Block: Analyzing Network Selection Trajectories in a Prison Treatment Program.” American Sociological Review 85(4):709–37. doi: 10.1177/0003122420941021.
Schneider, J., B. et al.. 2017. “Network Dynamics of HIV Risk and Prevention in a Population-Based Cohort of Young Black Men Who Have Sex with Men.” Network Science 5(3):381–409. doi: 10.1017/nws.2016.27.
Smith, Chris M., and Andrew V. Papachristos. 2016. “Trust Thy Crooked Neighbor: Multiplexity in Chicago Organized Crime Networks.” American Sociological Review 81(4):644–67. doi: 10.1177/0003122416650149.
Stark, David, and Balázs Vedres. 2006. “Social Times of Network Spaces: Network Sequences and Foreign Investment in Hungary.” American Journal of Sociology 111(5):1367–1411. doi: 10.1086/499507.
Suh, Chan S., Matthew E. Brashears, and Michael Genkin. 2016. “Gangs, Clubs, and Alcohol: The Effect of Organizational Membership on Adolescent Drinking Behavior.” Social Science Research 58:279–91. doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2015.12.004.
Tangherlini, Timothy R., Shadi Shahsavari, Behnam Shahbazi, Ehsan Ebrahimzadeh, and Vwani Roychowdhury. 2020. “An Automated Pipeline for the Discovery of Conspiracy and Conspiracy Theory Narrative Frameworks: Bridgegate, Pizzagate and Storytelling on the Web” edited by Y.-R. Lin. PLOS ONE 15(6):e0233879. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0233879.
Vaisey, S., and O. Lizardo. 2010. “Can Cultural Worldviews Influence Network Composition?” Social Forces 88(4):1595–1618. doi: 10.1353/sof.2010.0009.
Vedres, Balázs, and David Stark. 2010. “Structural Folds: Generative Disruption in Overlapping Groups.” American Journal of Sociology 115(4):1150–90. doi: 10.1086/649497.
Wang, Dashun, and Brian Uzzi. 2022. “Weak Ties, Failed Tries, and Success.” Science 377(6612):1256–58. doi: 10.1126/science.add0692.
Watts, Duncan J. 1999. “Networks, Dynamics, and the Small‐World Phenomenon.” American Journal of Sociology 105(2):493–527. doi: 10.1086/210318.
Yair, Gad. 1995. “‘Unite Unite Europe’ The Political and Cultural Structures of Europe as Reflected in the Eurovision Song Contest.” Social Networks 17(2):147–61. doi: 10.1016/0378-8733(95)00253-K.
Zuckerman, Ezra W., and John T. Jost. 2001. “What Makes You Think You’re so Popular? Self-Evaluation Maintenance and the Subjective Side of the ‘Friendship Paradox.’” Social Psychology Quarterly 64(3):207–23. doi: 10.2307/3090112.