Principal speaker
Associate Professor Malcolm Alexander
Abstract: Social Network Analysis (SNA) in applied, practical settings has made significant advances in the last decade. This paper reviews these developments by the new research designs they suggest and their potential for practical research applications. The paper begins with the best known, sociometric ‘whole network’ WN-SNA research tradition used in organizational and educational research (Kilduff and Tsai 2003). The paper then maps the differences between WN-SNA and ego-centric network (egonet) approaches used by survey researchers (Burt 1984; Vehovar et al. 2008)). The key difference turns on the full identification of a respondent’s contacts in WN-SNA as compared with the egonet practice of using de-identified IDs only. In recent studies Ron Burt (Neighbour Networks, 2010), a key proponent of egonet survey methods, has shifted to collecting data on fully identified contacts in contexts where this is sensible. This paper argues that this move, combined with important features of Burt’s earlier research practice (Structural holes, 2001) creates an important new, ‘partial sociometric’, research design for social network research. It outlines the methodological coherence of this new research design and notes some interesting overlaps with the methodologies of Socio-Cognitive Mapping (SCM) used in educational research (Kindermann 2007). It describes Burt’s latest work on quality improvement in health delivery to illustrate this research design and discusses an application of this design in a local participant-observation network study.
�ƒ˜ Burt, R. S. (1984). "Network items and the general social survey." Social Networks 6(4): 293-339.
�ƒ˜ Burt, R. S. (2001). “Structural holes versus network closure as social capital”. Social capital : theory and research. N. Lin, K. S. Cook & R. S. Burt. New York, Aldine de Gruyter: xii, 333.
�ƒ˜ Burt, R. S. (2010). Neighbor networks: competitive advantage local and personal. Oxford, OUP.
�ƒ˜ Kilduff, M. & W. Tsai (2003). Social networks and organizations. London, SAGE.
�ƒ˜ Kindermann, T. A. (2007). "Effects of Naturally Existing Peer Groups on Changes in Academic Engagement in a Cohort of Sixth Graders." Child Development 78(4): 1186-1203.
�ƒ˜ Vehovar, V., K. Lozar Manfreda, et al. (2008). "Measuring ego-centered social networks on the web: Questionnaire design issues." Social Networks 30(3): 213-222.
Speaker: Adjunct Associate Professor Malcolm Alexander is one of Australia’s leading sociologists working in the area of social network analysis and mathematical sociology. He made intensive studies of Australian business elite networks of the 1990s directed to public issues of corporate governance and investor capitalism. In recent years he has developed network analysis in new directions through his focus on 2-mode network mapping and investigations of elite networks in the civic cultures of Australian cities. He is currently writing a book for Sage publishers on Introduction to Social Network Analysis. He has undertaken social network based consultancies in the public and private sectors.
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