Friday, September 19, 2014

SNA All Star: Phillip Bonacich

Phillip Bonacich holds his PhD from Harvard University in Sociology and is currently a professor at UCLA that focuses on Social Networks.  His research is in the areas of Mathematical Sociology, Social Psychology, Quantitative Methodology.

Dr. Bonacich has contributed to social network analysis by examining the power of network, specifically looking at measures of power and centrality, as well as examining structures of exchange networks through a mathematical sociology lens. 

He has been a player in the field since the late seventies, but the bulk of his publications regarding social networks are from the late eighties and later.  His most sited work, “Power and Centrality: A family of measures” (1987) challenged the idea that network centrality is positively related to power in exchange networks. The bulk of his work has focused on the power of exchange networks and coalitions within exchange networks. 

He uses quantitative measures to examine links between networks and the implications for power of those networks.  In the Social Networks Journal in 2003, he examines asymmetric networks and contends that eigenvector-like measures cannot measure levels of centrality in all networks, specifically asymmetric ones. 

While much of his work has been published alone, collaborators include Paulette Lloyd of UCLA and Elisa Jayne Bienenstock of Georgetown University.

Some works include:

“Power and centrality: A family of measures.” American journal of sociology, 1987

"The Evolution of Exchange Networks: A Simulation Study." Journal of Social Structure. 2001 

"An Algebraic Theory of Strong Power in Negatively Connected Exchange Networks," Journal of Mathematical Sociology. 23(1999)203-224.


"Eigenvector-like Measures of Centrality for Asymmetric Relations." Social Networks 23 (2001):191-201.

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