Lecture 1: intro

Question 1

defintion social network

Answer 1

defined as a set of nodes (social actors such as individuals, groups or organizations) an ties representing some relationship or absence of a relationship among the actors’

Question 2

ego-network

Answer 2

the ensemble of ego ( = focussing our attention on a single focal actor) and his alters (=the set of nodes that the ego has ties with) ties among these

Question 3

Actors can be connected via:

Answer 3

1. similarities
2. social relations
3. interactions
4. flows (of resources)

Question 4

Ties characteristics:

Answer 4

1. Binary (present or absent: friends or not friends)
2. Valued (frequency, intensity or strength of ties)
3. Directed (one-directional as in giving advice) or undirected (physically proximate)

Question 5

2 types of ties

Answer 5

State-type ties:

• have continuity over time, open-ended persistence and
• operationalize in terms of strength/intensity and duration (like kinship or role-based ties)

Event-type ties:

• discrete and transitory nature can be counted over periods of time
• operationalize in terms of frequency and occurrence (like interactions or transactions (giving adivce, sending a email))

Question 6

Realist persepective

Answer 6

there is a true network of relationships out there and our job as researchers is to discover it.

Question 7

nominalist persepective

Answer 7

every network question that we as researchers ask generates it own network. This is more a social constructionist persepective. So for example think about your own network of friends. If I aks you today who are your friends, this might be different next week, although parts of it don’t change.

Question 8

Strength of weak ties (theory from Granovetter)

Answer 8

The stronger the tie between two people, the more likely their social worlds will overlap (same ties with same third parties)
Bridging ties re potential sources of novel ideas (links a person to someone who isn’t conneted to other friends
Strong ties are unlikely to be the source of novel info, weak ties are!
- more about the oppurtunity bridging gives you

Question 9

Structural holes (theory by Burt)

Answer 9

concerned with ‘ego networks’ and the power of the person bridging the hole (ego).
A network with more bridges is likely to afford more novel info that one without. Network with more bridges is likely to receive more nonredundant info which can perform better/ being perceived as the source of new ideas