Social Network Analysis (Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences)

David Knoke and Song Yang′s Social Network Analysis, Third Edition provides a concise introduction to the concepts and tools of social network analysis. The authors convey key material while at the same time minimizing technical complexities. The examples are simple: sets of 5 or 6 entities such as individuals, positions in a hierarchy, political offices, and nation-states, and the relations between them include friendship, communication, supervision, donations, and trade. The new edition reflects developments and changes in practice over the past decade. The authors also describe important recent developments in network analysis, especially in the fifth chapter. Exponential random graph models (ERGMs) are a prime example: when the second edition was published, P* models were the recommended approach for this, but they have been replaced by ERGMs. Finally, throughout the volume, the authors comment on the challenges and opportunities offered by internet and social media data.

David Knoke (Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1972) is a professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota, where he teaches and does research on diverse social networks, including political, economic, healthcare, intra-  and interorganizational, and terrorist & counterterror networks. In addition to many articles and chapters, he has written seven books about networks: Network Analysis (1982, with James Kuklinski), The Organizational State (1985, with Edward Laumann), Political Networks (1990), Comparing Policy Networks (1996, with Franz Pappi, Jeffrey Broadbent, and Yutaka Tsujinaka), Changing Organizations (2001), Social Network Analysis (2008, with Song Yang), and Economic Networks (2012).

 

Song Yang (Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 2002) is a professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Arkansas. His teaching and research areas are social network analysis, including business, economic, and organizational networks, work and organization studies, and social statistics. He published many articles and chapters, with the most recent ones on Journal of Business Research and Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. He has written several books, including Social Network Analysis (2008, with David Knoke), The Invisible Hands of Political Parties in Presidential Elections: Party Activists and Political Aggregation from 2004 to 2012 (2013, with Andrew Dowdle, Scott Limbocker, Patrick Stewart, and Karen Sebold), and Social Network Analysis: Methods and Examples (2016, with Franziska Keller, and Lu Zheng).