Program Social Network Course PSOBA3Soc (2004/2005) Stokman/Snijders

Mon 13-15, Thu 15-17

• Mon Nov 15 (Stokman): Introduction to Social Networks

  Theoretical perspectives and research questions.
  Basic concepts (1); Applications.

  Literature:
  Charles Kadushin, Introduction to Social Network Theory, Chapter 2. Some basic network concepts and propositions.
  Stokman, Frans N. (2005) What Binds Us When with Whom? Content and Structure in Social Network Analysis. English version of forthcoming article in Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie

• Thu Nov 18: No class meeting

• Mon Nov 22 (Stokman): Subjects Nov 15 continued and data collection methods

• Thu Nov 25 (Stokman): Intro in UCINET;
  Representations;
  Basic Concepts (2).

  Literature:
  Stokman, Frans N. (2001), Networks: Social, International Encyclopedia for the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 10509-10514
  Wasserman and Faust Ch 1, 2, Ch 3 Sections 3.1 and 3.2, Ch 4 (except sections with 0).

  The assignment can be found by clicking here .

• Mon Nov 29 (Stokman): Proximity models

  Literature:
  Wasserman and Faust Ch 7 Sections 7.1 to 7.5.

• Thu Dec 2 (Stokman): Similarity models

  Literature: examples Thurman and Wittek
  Wasserman and Faust Ch 9, 10.

• Mon Dec 6 (Stokman): Point and Graph Centrality models

  Literature: Wasserman and Faust Ch 5 (except 5.2.4)
  

  Assignment Stokman due on Dec 13 in post box Stokman)

  Consultation re assignment Stokman: Frans Wasseur Dec 7 (1-5 pm) and Dec 8 (3-5 pm)

• Thu Dec 9: No course meeting; Defense of dissertation of Miranda Lubbers in Aula (14.15 till 15.15)

• Mon Dec 13 (Stokman): Transitivity and Balance

  Literature: Wasserman and Faust Ch 14 (Except 14.3.1).

• Thu Dec 16 (Stokman): Wrapping up and discussion of Assignments Stokman.

• Mon Dec 20 (Snijders): Small world models

  Literature:
  Watts, D.J. (1999). Networks, dynamics, and the small-world phenomenon. American Journal of Sociology, 105, 493-527.
  reading help / questions for this paper.
  

• Thu December 23 (Snijders): Exponential random graph models

  
  Read the paper by Watts treated December 20, focusing on pages 493-509 and 517-524.
  Literature for this day:
  The downloadable paper below was replaced Tuesday December 21, 17.17, by a new version.
  Robins, G.L., Woolcock, J., and Pattison, P. Small and other worlds: Global network structures from local processes. American Journal of Sociology, to appear, January 2005.
  reading help / questions for this paper.

• Mon Jan 10 (Snijders): Statistical models for network dynamics

  Literature: T.A.B. Snijders, Models for longitudinal network data, in P. Carrington, J. Scott and S. Wasserman (Eds.) Models and Methods in Social Network Analysis, Cambridge University Press: forthcoming, 2005. Sections 1-4, 8-9, 10.1, 11-12 (this is a rather heavy mathematical paper, which is used as background material for the interested);
  M. Huisman and M.A.J. van Duijn, Software for Social Network Analysis, in P. Carrington, J. Scott and S. Wasserman (Eds.) Models and Methods in Social Network Analysis, Cambridge University Press: forthcoming, 2005. (this is given just as general background material);
  van de Bunt, G.G., Van Duijn, M.A.J., and Snijders, T.A.B., Friendship networks through time: An actor-oriented statistical network model, Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, 5 (1999), 167-192;
  handouts.

• Thu Jan 13 (Snijders): Intro to SIENA

  Take with you the paper van de Bunt et al. (see January 10) and Huisman et al (see today).
  Literature: SIENA manual ; concentrate on Sections 5, 6, and 11.
  Huisman, M. & Van Duijn, M.A.J. (2003). StOCNET: Software for the statistical analysis of social networks. CONNECTIONS 25(1): 7-26. .

  Computer program: there are three ways to get Siena:

  1. you can download Siena from the Stocnet website and install it on your computer;
  2. if you do not have the permission to install a program, you can download Stocnet as a zipped file collection that you can unzip in the root of your G: drive. (This requires about 13 Mb free space on your drive.) This will create a Stocnet directory on the G: drive. If that is done, you can directly use the program by clicking on the Stocnet.exe icon in this directory. You can then delete the zip file.
  3. if you do not have the permission to install a program and also you do not have 13 Mb free space, then you can use an alternative that needs only 8 Mb free space. You can download a stripped version of Stocnet (containing only Siena and not the other programs that are normally included in Stocnet), and then follow the same steps as in (2.). (This requires about 8 Mb free space on your drive.)

  Exercise material: analyse the data collected by Gerhard van de Bunt (treated in the papers and distributed with StOCNET).

  The assignment for the part taught by Tom Snijders is obtained by clicking here. The data set is here. You must unzip the data and put the network data N34_h.dat and HN34_h.dat as well as the dyadic covariates CBEh.SIM (filling in h = 6, 10, 16, 19) in the Networks subdirectory, and the attribute files CBEh.dat in the Actfiles subdirectory. The assignment must be handed in on January 25 (email or postbox Tom Snijders), 17.00.

  Computer assignments for the part taught by Frans Stokman must be handed in January 13 (this means that the term mentioned earlier is delayed).

• Mon Jan 17 (Stokman): Discussion assignments Stokman.

• Thu Jan 20 (Snijders): Work on Siena assignment.

  Homework: Read the paper by Gerhard van de Bunt et al. and Sections 5, 6, and 11 of the SIENA manual .
  Exercise with the data of the study by Gerhard van de Bunt, contained in the Stocnet distribution, to get acquainted with Siena.
  Make a start with the assignment. There will be a meeting from 15.00 (sharp!) to 15.45 on Thursday January 20, where you can ask questions about the assignment.

• Mon Jan 24 (Snijders): Continuation of topics of previous week. Consultation for making assigments.

  Note that you must hand in the assignment on Tuesday January 25, 17.00.

• Thu Jan 27 (Snijders): Wrapping up and discussion of Assignments Snijders.

The extra assignment for the part taught by Tom Snijders, for those who hand in this assignment in April, is obtained by clicking here.

Students need to pass for all assignments and for a written examination.