Mitchell Centre Seminar Series
| Dates: | 2 October 2024 |
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| Times: | 16:00 - 17:30 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | School of Social Sciences |
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Michael Heaney, University of Glasgow
Theory and Possibilities in Social Network Analysis
As social network analysis has grown in use over the past quarter century, it has become a staple in the disciplinary toolkit of political science. While political scientists have been at the forefront of innovating network methodologies, these developments have outstripped advances in political network theory. This chapter makes the case for greater attention to political network theory. It points to four promising areas for investigation. First, it advocates greater theorization of the strength of political ties that moves beyond the weak ties/strong ties dichotomy. Second, it identities opportunities for theorizing types of ties to expand understandings of multiplex networks, such as by modeling their isomorphic structures. Third, it endorses the extension of multimodal models to incorporate the number of types of actors beyond the traditional bipartite structure. Fourth, it proposes blending theories of temporal network dynamics (e.g., preferential attachment, triadic closure, balance, homophily, reciprocity, decay) with extant theories of political time related to path dependence and sequences. Finally, it considers possibilities for traversing these areas of advance using an illustration from the study of political brokerage.
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G6
Humanities Bridgeford Street
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