Over the past decade, there has been an explosion of interest in network research across the physical and social sciences. One of the most potent ideas in the social sciences is the notion that individuals are embedded in thick webs of social relations and interactions. For social scientists, the theory of networks has been a gold mine, yielding explanations for social phenomena in a wide variety of disciplines from psychology to economics. Social network theory provides an answer to a question that has preoccupied social philosophy since the time of Plato, namely, the problem of social order: how autonomous individuals can combine to create enduring, functioning societies. Network theory also provides explanations for a myriad of social phenomena, from individual creativity to corporate profitability. Network research is “hot” today, with the number of articles in the Web of Science on the topic of “social networks” nearly tripling in the past decade.The article below provides kinds of things that social scientists have tried to explain using social network analysis and provide a nutshell description of the basic assumptions, goals, and explanatory mechanisms prevalent in the field.
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