Much social organization no longer fits the standard sociological model of a world composed of nested groups. Work, community and domesticity have moved from hierarchically arranged, densely knit, bounded groups to social networks. In networked societies, boundaries are more permeable, interactions are with diverse others, linkages switch between multiple networks, and hierarchies are flatter and more recursive. Hence many people and organizations communicate with others in ways that ramify across group boundaries. Rather than relating to one group, they cycle through interactions with a variety of others, at work or in the community. Their work and community networks are diffuse and sparsely knit, with vague, overlapping, social and spatial boundaries. Their computer-mediated communication has become part of their everyday lives, rather than being a separate set of relationships.

      Social network analysis is a way to understand fundamental social questions.  Network analysts study the relations linking persons, organizations, interest groups, states, etc.  They analyze the structure of these relations, and they study how such structures allocate scarce resources, constrain behaviour, and channel social change.  Their methods are both quantitative and qualitative.

 

    This course discusses the application of the concepts and methods of network analysis to sociological questions.  It focuses on open, unbounded systems -- be they communities or sets of nations.  No previous experience is necessary.

 

Among the questions we examine are:

 

·    Why supportive communities have flourished in the teeth of urbanization, bureaucratization, capitalism, socialism, industrialization and technological change?

·    In what ways do computer networks become social networks? What kinds of social structures and activities take place on computer supported social networks?

·    How do networks organize collective political activity, non-violent and violent?

·    How do interlocking corporate and government ties operate in formal bureaucracies, link ruling elites, and organize large-scale social structures?

·    How do relations of power and dependency structure world systems?

Readings Available Online:

      *UTL = http://www.library.utoronto.ca/

      *GN05 = http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/gradnet05/

Useful  Books

Barry Wellman & S.D. Berkowitz, eds., Social Structures: A Network Approach (Canadian Scholars Press – or older editions)

Barry Wellman, ed., Networks in the Global Village (Westview Press)

Nan Lin, Karen Cook and Ronald Burt, Social Capital: Theory and Research (Aldine de Gruyter)

John Scott: Social Network Analysis (Sage)

David Knoke & John Kuklinski, Social Network Analysis (Sage)

Nan Lin, Social Capital (Cambridge University Press)

Robert Putnam, Bowling Alone (Simon and Schuster)

Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society, second edition (Blackwell)

Stanley Wasserman and Katherine Faust, Social Network Analysis (Cambridge University Press)

Barry Wellman & Caroline Haythornthwaite, eds., The Internet in Everyday Life (Blackwell).
Course Outline

1. CONCEPTS (Jan 4)        

*Barry Wellman, "Structural Analysis:  From Method & Metaphor to Theory & Substance."  In Wellman & Berkowitz.
  http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/publications/structuralanalysis/structanaly.pdf

Barry Wellman, "An Electronic Group is Virtually a Social Network" In Sara Kiesler, Culture of the Internet (1997).
    http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/publications/electronicgroup/electronicgroup.pdf

David Tindall and Barry Wellman, “Canada as Social Structure: Social Network Analysis and Canadian Sociology.” Special issue on “The Legacy of Canadian Sociology,” edited by Harry Hiller. Canadian Journal of Sociology 26 (3), Fall, 2001: 265- 308.    UTL

 

2. CLASSICAL STATEMENTS (Jan 11)

Georg Simmel, "The Web of Group Affiliations" in Conflict And The Web Of Group Affiliations.  Glencoe:  Free Press, 1955         GN05

J.A. Barnes, "Classes and Committees in A Norwegian Island Parish" in Samuel Leinhardt, ed., Social Networks:  A Developing Paradigm.   GN05

Elizabeth Bott, "Urban Families:  Conjugal Roles and Social Networks," in Leinhardt. GN05

Harrison White, Scott Boorman and Ronald Breiger. 1976. "Social Structure from Multiple Networks: I Blockmodels of Roles and Positions." American Journal of Sociology 81: 730-80.     UTL

 

3. THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL STRUCTURE ON PROCESS (Jan 18)

Mark Granovetter, “The Strength of Weak Ties,” American Journal of Sociology, 1973, coupled with: Mark Granovetter, "Weak Ties Revisited" in Sociological Theory 1983, edited by Randall Collins.  UTL

Scott Feld, “The Focused Organization of Social Ties,” American Journal of Sociology 86. UTL

Ronald Breiger, "The Duality of Persons & Groups," Pp. 83-98 in Wellman & Berkowitz.
GN05

Linton Freeman. 1979. "Centrality in Social Networks: Conceptual Clarification." Social Networks 1: 215-39.     UTL

 

4. SOCIAL CAPITAL (Jan 25)

Nan Lin. 2005. “A Network Theory of Social Capital.” Forthcoming in Handbook of Social Capital, edited by Jan van Deth and Guglielmo Wolleb   GN05

Bonnie Erickson, "Good Networks and Good Jobs." In Lin, Cook and Burt..  GN05  

Alejandro Portes and Patricia Landolt. 1996. The Downside of Social Capital. The American Prospect 26:18-21.  UTL

Karen Cook, 2004. “Networks, Norms and Trust: The Social Psychology of Social Capital.” Presented to the International Conference on Social Capital, Taiwan, December.  GN05

Gabriele Plickert, Barry Wellman and Rochelle Coté, 2005.  “Tit for Tat and all That.” Forthcoming in Social Capital on the Ground, edited by Talja Blokland and Mike Savage. Oxford Blackwell.

 

5. COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL CAPITAL (Feb 1)        

Barry Wellman & Scot Wortley, "Different Strokes from Different Folks," American Journal of Sociology 96, 11/90.  UTL

Barry Wellman and Kenneth Frank, "Network Capital in a Multilevel World." Pp. 233-4 in Lin, Cook & Burt.

     http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/publications/networkcapital/hlmnan10.pdf

Peter Marsden. 1987"Core Discussion Networks of Americans," American Sociological Review 52 (February): 122-31.  UTL

Barry Wellman, "Physical Place and Cyber Place: The Rise of Personalized Networking" International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 25, 2 (2001): 227-52.  UTL

Endre Sik and Barry Wellman. 1999. "Network Capital in Capitalist, Communist, and Postcommunist Countries." Pp. 225-254 in Networks in the Global Village, edited by Wellman.  GN05

Alexis Ferrand, Lise Mounier and Alain Degenne. 1999. "The Diversity of Personal Networks in France: Social Stratification and Relational Structures." Pp. 185-224 in Networks in the Global Village, edited by Wellman.  GN05

 

6. SEARCH AND DIFFUSION PROCESSES (Feb 8)    

Stanley Milgram, "The Small-World Problem," Psychology Today 1 (3/67):  62-67.

H. Russell Bernard, Gene Ann Shelley and Peter Killworth. 1987. "How Much of a Network does the GSS and RSW Dredge Up?" Social Networks 9 (March):49-63.

Thomas Valente, Network Models of the Diffusion of Innovations, Chapters 3 & 4.

Miller McPherson, Lynn Smith-Lovin and James Cook, “Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social Networks.” Annual Review of Sociology 27 (2001): 415-44.  UTL

Duncan Watts. 2003. Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age. New York: W.W. Norton. selections

Albert-Laszlo Barabasi & Eric Bonabeau. 2003. "Scale-Free Networks." Scientific American, May, 60-69. Phil Bonacich’s review of Watts, Barabasi, Social Networks.  GN05

 

7. COMPUTER NETWORKS ARE SOCIAL NETWORKS (Feb 15)

Caroline Haythornthwaite and Barry Wellman. 1998. "Work, Friendship and Media Use in a Networked Organization," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 49(2): 1101-1114.  UTL

Barry Wellman. 2001. "Computer Networks as Social Networks." Science 293 (Sept 14): 2031-34.  UTL

Anabel Quan-Haase and Barry Wellman, 2002. “Capitalizing on the Internet: Network Capital, Participatory Capital, and Sense of Community.” In Wellman & Haythornthwaite.

      http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/publications/capitalizingonnet/capitalizingnet.pdf

Keith Hampton and Barry Wellman. 2003. "Neighboring in Netville" City and Community 2 (3): 277-311.

     http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/publications/neighboring/neighboring_netville.pdf

Caroline Haythornthwaite, 2002. “Strong, Weak, and Latent Ties and the Impact of New Media.” The Information Society 18: 385-401.  UTL

 

Reading Week – No Class Feb 22

 

8. ORGANIZATIONAL NETWORKS (March 1)

Peter Monge and Noshir Contractor. 2000. “Emergence of Communication Networks.” In Handbook of Organizational Communication, 2d ed. edited by Peter Monge and Noshir Contractor.  (long - skim)

Joel Podolny and James Baron. 1997. “Social Networks and Mobility in the Workplace.” American Sociological Review 62, 5 (Oct): 673-93.  UTL

Ronald Burt, "Structural Holes versus Network Closure as Social Capital." Pp. 31-56 in Lin, Cook & Burt.  GN05

Ronald Burt. 2002. “Bridge Decay.” Social Networks 24 (October): 333-64.  UTL

Anabel Quan-Haase and Barry Wellman. 2005. Hyperconnected Net Work: Computer Mediated Community in a High-Tech Organization.” Forthcoming in Collaborative Community in Business and Society, edited by Charles Heckscher and Paul Adler. New York: Oxford University Press.

     http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/publications/trust/trust3f1.pdf

Rob Cross, "More Than an Answer: How Seeking Information Through People Facilitates Knowledge Creation." Presented to the Academy of Management conference, Toronto, 2000.

 

9. INTERORGANIZATIONAL Networks (March 8)

Mark Mizruchi & Joseph Galaskiewicz, "Networks of Interorganizational Relations," Sociological Methods & Research 22, 1 (8/93): 46-70.  UTL

Mark Granovetter. 1985. "Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness." American Journal of Sociology 91: 481-510. (Somewhat condensed version in Wellman & Berkowitz)  UTL

Brian Uzzi. 1996. "The Sources and Consequences of Embeddedness for the Economic Performance of Organizations: The Network Effect." American Sociological Review 6: 674-698.  UTL

Melissa Schilling & Corey Phelps, "Interfirm Knowledge Networks and Knowledge Creation: The Impact of 'Small World' Connectivity." October 2003. Working paper.

 

10.DATA GATHERING METHODS (March 15)

Peter Marsden and Karen Campbell. "Measuring Tie Strength." Social Forces 63 (12/84): 482-501.  UTL

Nan Lin, Yang-chih Fu, and Ray-May Hsung, "The Position Generator: Measurement Techniques for Investigations of Social Capital." Pp. 57-81 in Lin, Cook and Burt.  GN05

Bonnie Nardi., Steve Whittaker and Heinrich Schwartz. 2000. "It's Not What You Know, It's Who You Know: Work in the Information Age." First Monday 5 (5): http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue5_5/nardi/index.html

Selected papers from forthcoming Field Methods issue

Other papers, tba

 

11. DATA ANALYSIS (March 22): Guest Seminar Leader: Prof Dean Behrens

UCINet, Pajek and Net Draw – hands on experience

Dean Behrens, “A Walk Through UCINet.” Working paper. – To be provided.

Christoph Müller, Barry Wellman and Alexandra Marin. “How to Use SPSS to Study Ego-Centered Networks.” Bulletin de Methode Sociologique 69 (Oct, 1999): 83-100.

      http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman/publications/howtousespss/article.html

James Coleman and Herbert Menzel, “Diffusion of Innovation among Physicians,” Sociometry 20: 253-70,  UTL   -paired with:

Ronald Burt, “Social Contagion and Innovation.” American Journal of Sociology 92: 1287-1335.  UTL

 

12. WRITING WORKSHOP (April 1)

Same place; but Friday morning.

For best results, supply portions of a paper ahead of time.

 

13. PRESENTATIONS OF PRELIMINARY RESEARCH PAPERS (April 5)

Powerpoint presentations