SNA All-Star: James S. Coleman

James Coleman was a sociologist first trained by Robert Merton and Paul Lazarfeld. Both professors were major influences in his work particularly in his mathematical and structural approaches. His most recognized SNA-related work in the sociology and sociometry fields spanned a long period from the late 1950s to the 1990s.

Two major publications that he is most known for are Medical Innovation: A Diffusion Study in 1966 with Elinu Katz and Herbert Mentzel and Foundations of Social Theory in 1990. His diffusion study provided one of the earliest uses of systematic and empirical research on diffusion in the social network field. The method of fixed recall garnered criticism, but his research into how “doctors’ willingness to prescribe a new antibiotic coincided” with their own surrounding network is often cited to explain diffusion and the role of personal relations today (Prell 2012, p 64.) But what Coleman is most known for are his theories of social action and social capital in his Social Theory book.

 According to Coleman’s analysis, social capital is “any kind of social relationship that is a resource to a person.” (Coleman 1990, p 35). This concept helps reinforce the benefits of professional networks (and many other types of social networks) and the resources that can be found through relationship links. He is considered one of the founding minds of the concept of social capital. In fact his article “Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital” in the American Journal of Sociology in 1988 is recorded as being cited 26,301 times.