Description
Social networks constitute a form of social structure that is present in almost all social situations and interactions. Social networks influence the actions of their individual members and affect many aspects of people’s life. The module presents an introduction to social networks and treats the fundamental tools and concepts of the analysis of social networks. These include the methods to collect and handle social network data, types of networks, structures and components of networks, various measures and metrics that describe a network and its components (centrality, degree, clustering, etc.). Next to these tools, the module presents applications of social network analysis to the study of important social phenomena such as social capital, crime, politics, the spread of diseases and ideas, the labour market, homophily, social media, and networks between organisations and countries. Through weekly problem sets, students gain hands-on experience of analysing social network data with the R statistical software. No prior knowledge of R is assumed.
Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year
Last updated
This module description was last updated on 19th August 2024.
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