Understanding Large Temporal Networks and Spatial Networks is a clear and accessible book, balancing symbolic mathematics, code, and visual explanations. The authors’ enthusiasm for their subject matter makes it enjoyable to read even though the methods in the introductory chapters are complex. The substantive topics include scientific citation networks, a history of the US Supreme Court gleaned from a citation network of decisions from 2001 back to 1789, an examination of technological change as revealed by a patent network with more than 30 million patents, a critical examination of accepted ‘common wisdom’ regarding the movement of football (soccer) players across the globe to ply their trade, and an examination of the spatial distribution of many social characteristics of the US to test theories. It is appropriate for undergraduates and postgraduates with some background in algebra, set theory, and data structures. It is for readers who are looking to learn more than just the methods but want to understand the entire investigative process of addressing spatial and temporal problems in network science.
Generalized Blockmodeling presents an extensive generalization of blockmodeling methods that lays the foundations for a systematic approach to partitioning networks. It analyzes the fundamental structures of social networks drawn from a wide variety of fields. The networks considered include: small group structures, little league baseball teams, interorganizational networks primate grooming networks, marriage ties of noble families, trust networks, signed networks, Supreme Court decisions, journal citation networks and alliance networks. The emphasis is on defining new block types within a direct approach to blockmodeling based on substantive ideas. Included is a systematic examination of measuring the fit of blockmodels to data and using pre-specification to test substantive ideas.
The Problem of Solidarity: Theories and Models is an edited collection of original contributions studying the phenomenon of solidarity using a variety of formal models and substantive theories. Social systems thought to be secure thought to be secure have broken down, especially with the renewal of hostilities based on ethnic identifications. These tensions create a serious strain on collective solidarity. An agenda for studying solidarity is laid out with the contributed chapters, written from different perspectives, are explicit attempts to address these agenda items to help understand the social processes creating solidarity and destroying it.
Evolution of Social Networks is an edited collection of original contributions seeking to understand the evolution of social networks over time. Its focus is on temporal processes generating the structures of networks and how they change. A coherent framework for studying network evolution is presented that deals with both network and actor properties. The topics include: the weakness of strong ties; the emergence of groups in friendship networks; the study of structuralism models; political power in policy networks; balance theory for temporal signed networks, the evolution of friendship choice involving rival mechanisms; stochastic actor-oriented models and general models for network evolution. It concludes with a statement about the processes and principles for studying network evolution.
Modeling Social Processes presented methods for fitting formal models to both temporal and cross-sectional data. The overall framework includes a substantive component, an epistemological component, a consideration of systems represented by differential equations, a consideration of stability and equilibrium, a technical component, and a coherent modeling sequence. The empirical applications include labor turnover, a structural control model of organizational change, a dynamic model of governmental popularity, a characterization of spatial systems, and a spatial model of a political insurgency. The book concludes with a discussion of modeling social processes.