NetworksBasicConcepts分析.pptVIP

Networks: Basic Concepts Centrality Networks: Basic Concepts In this discussion, we’ll outline some basic concepts of network analysis, focusing on centrality. We’ll also fold into this discussion an overview of UCINET. UCINET is a software program that is commonly used with network analysis. While it does not handle some of the more recent ways in which networks can be analyzed (such as longitudinal or cross-sectional ERGM methods), it is a very user friendly way to obtain network-related measures, and to create visual depictions of networks. UCINET offers a free 30 day trial. Much of the discussion of UCINET was drawn from the tutorial created by Hanneman at Riverside. Basic concepts Recall—vertices or nodes are the units or actors in a network (or a graph or a system). Edges are the ties or connections between nodes. And the “ego” is the node under consideration—any particular node that you might be thinking of. Basic Concepts: Centrality Centrality is a measure of how many connections one node has to other nodes. Degree centrality refers to the number of ties a node has to other nodes. Actors who have more ties may have multiple alternative ways and resources to reach goals—and thus be relatively advantaged. Basic Concepts: Degree Centrality Degree centrality for an undirected graph is straightforward—if A is connected to B, then B is by definition connected to A. Degree centrality for a directed graph or network has one of two forms. Degree Centrality—Directed Networks One is in-degree centrality: An actor who receives many ties, they are characterized as prominent. The basic idea is that many actors seek to direct ties to them—and so this may be regarded as a measure of importance. The other is out-degree centrality. Actors who have high out-degree centrality may be relatively able to exchange with others, or disperse information quickly to many others. (Recall the strength of weak ties argument.) So actors with high out-degree centralit