k-means-based algorithm for blockmodeling linked networks

The paper presents a k-means-based algorithm for blockmodeling linked networks where linked networks are defined as a collection of one-mode and two-mode networks in which units from different one-mode networks are connected through two-mode networks. The reason for this is that a faster algorithm is needed for blockmodeling linked networks that can better scale to larger networks. Examples of linked networks include multilevel networks, dynamic networks, dynamic multilevel networks, and meta-networks. Generalized blockmodeling has been developed for linked/multilevel networks, yet the generalized blockmodeling approach is too slow for analyzing larger networks. Therefore, the flexibility of generalized blockmodeling is sacrificed for the speed of k-means-based approaches, thus allowing the analysis of larger networks. The presented algorithm is based on the two-mode k-means (or KL-means) algorithm for two-mode networks or matrices. As a side product, an algorithm for one-mode blockmodeling of one-mode networks is presented. The algorithm’s use on a dynamic multilevel network with more than 400 units is presented. A situation study is also conducted which shows that k-means based algorithms are superior to relocation algorithm-based methods for larger networks (e.g. larger than 800 units) and never much worse.     

Structural holes and bridging in two-mode networks

Social networks are often structured in such a way that there are gaps, or “structural holes,” between regions. Some actors are in the position to bridge or span these gaps, giving rise to individual advantages relating to brokerage, gatekeeping, access to non-redundant contacts, and control over network flows. The most widely used measures of a given actor’s bridging potential gauge the extent to which that actor is directly connected to others who are otherwise not well connected to each other. Unfortunately, the measures that have been developed to identify structural holes cannot be adapted directly to two-mode networks, like individual-to-organization networks. In two-mode networks, direct contacts cannot be directly connected to each other by definition, making the calculation of redundancy, effective size, and constraint impossible with conventional one-mode methods. We therefore describe a new framework for the measurement of bridging in two-mode networks that hinges on the mathematical concept of the intersection of sets. An actor in a given node class (“ego”) has bridging potential to the extent that s/he is connected to actors in the opposite node class that have unique profiles of connections to actors in ego’s own node class. We review the relevant literature pertaining to structural holes in two-mode networks, and we compare our primary bridging measure (effective size) to measures of bridging that result when using one-mode projections of two-mode data. We demonstrate the results of applying our approach to empirical data on the organizational affiliations of elites in a large U.S. city.     

Dynamic network analysis of contact diaries

Analyzing two-mode networks linking actors to events they attend may help to uncover the structure and evolution of social networks. This classic social network insight is particularly valuable in the analysis of data extracted from contact diaries where contact events produce — and at the same time are the product of relations among participants. Contact events may comprise any number of actors meeting at a specific point in time. In this paper we recall the correspondence between two-mode actor–event networks and hypergraphs, and propose relational hyperevent models (RHEM) as a general modeling framework for networks of time-stamped multi-actor events in which the diarist (“ego”) simultaneously meets several of her alters. RHEM can estimate event intensities associated with each possible subset of actors that may jointly participate in events, and test network effects that may be of theoretical or empirical interest. Examples of such effects include preferential attachment, prior shared activity (familiarity), closure, and covariate effects explaining the propensity of actors to co-attend events. Statistical tests of these effects can uncover processes that govern the formation and evolution of informal groups among the diarist’s alters. We illustrate the empirical value of RHEM using data comprising almost 2000 meeting events of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with her cabinet ministers, transcribed from contact diaries covering her first term in office (1979–1983).     

Moral accounting as field foundation in an early modern empire: the English East India Company in the late eighteenth century

Field analysis and the relational approach to historical social-scientific explanation of which it is an instance – helps illuminate the administrative dynamics of empires. While most studies of imperial dynamics emphasize the ‘high imperialism’ of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this article extends field analysis to a crucial case from the second half of the eighteenth century: the English East India Company's transition from a (largely) merchant trading company to a territorial power. In this disordered space of administration, officials struggling with one another for metropolitan recognition provided moral accounts of themselves which, on the one hand, explained their behaviour in terms drawn from abstract, purportedly universal social spaces, and, on the other hand, claimed credibility through a personal ‘interest in disinterest’. I argue that these moral accounts helped delimit the boundaries of and shape the dynamics within a distinctively imperial administrative field. To analyse this transformation, I suggest a synthesis of three varieties of relational analysis: Bourdieu's field theory, Fligstein and McAdam's analysis of strategic action fields, and Padgett and Powell's work on network folding and robust action.     

Improving performance evaluation based on balanced scorecard with grey relational analysis and data envelopment analysis approaches: Case study in water and wastewater companies

Various approaches are used to measure the firms’ performance. Grey relational analysis is one of the multiple attribute decision-making methods and data envelopment analysis is used to calculate the efficiency. Regarding the importance of water and wastewater companies’ services, the present study, evaluates the performance and rank these companies by using grey relational analysis and data envelopment analysis approaches based on balanced scorecard criteria. Besides, balanced scorecard considers all levels of organization. In this research, statistical population includes thirty-five municipal water and wastewater companies in Iran for the year 2017. In order to ascertain grey relational grade, fuzzy normalization method was used then by subtracting normalized numbers from one, reference sequences obtained and in the next step, grey relational coefficient was calculated and finally, grey relational grade was determined by multiplying relative weight from Shannon entropy to relational coefficients. In order to assess companies’ efficiency in data envelopment analysis, after ascertaining input and output indices, with the assumption of constant returns to scale and output-oriented viewpoint, the efficiency scores were calculated. Also, to rank efficient units Anderson-Petersen model implemented. Results demonstrated that, grey relational analysis is a more accurate method to measure the performance of water and wastewater companies.     

Beyond ‘developmentalism’: A relational and embodied approach to young children's development

This article begins by discussing ‘developmentalism’, one of the key debates that has characterised the current theoretical impasse in the development of childhood studies. I use Norbert Elias's concept of the relation between love and learning as a foundation to develop the way in which young children's development is a non-linear, temporal and embodied process. I argue that we need to develop a relational approach that moves beyond some of the binary divisions between ‘nature’ and ‘biology’, drawing on concepts from particular theoretical traditions that have been under-utilised, particularly the relational school of psychoanalysis and the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty.     

The dual-projection approach for two-mode networks

There have been two distinct approaches to two-mode data. The first approach is to project the data to one-mode and then analyze the projected network using standard single-mode techniques, also called the conversion method. The second approach has been to extend methods and concepts to the two-mode case and analyze the network directly with the two modes considered jointly. The direct approach in recent years has been the preferred method since it is assumed that the conversion method loses important structural information. Here we argue that this is not the case, provided both projections are used together in any analysis. We illustrate how this approach works using core/periphery, structural equivalence and centrality as examples.     

Captured by the Game: Might a Focus on the ‘Therapeutic Relationship’ Diminish the Attention We Give to the Client's Intimate Network?

A recent project sought to clarify how psychotherapists and mental health workers understand psychosocial health and pathology. In this enquiry, I paid particular attention to the client's interpersonal networks: did the professionals actively consider, and if so to what extent, ‘intimate social and family relationships’ in constructing their understanding of the presenting problem and in the process they used for goal setting. Twenty‐two semi‐structured interviews were undertaken, eleven with psychotherapists and eleven with mental health workers. Across both groups, interviewees tended not to see their clients as embedded, relational entities, but primarily, often quite exclusively, as autonomous beings. Second, interviewees accorded a high value to the importance of ‘the therapeutic relationship’. Is it possible that the emphasis practitioners place on ‘the therapeutic relationship’ has the effect of marginalising the attention that is given to the client's significant‐other network?     

A generalized model of relational similarity

This paper introduces two principles for relational similarity, and based on these principles it proposes a novel geometric representation for similarity. The first principle generalizes earlier measures of similarity such as Pearson-correlation and structural equivalence: while correlation and structural equivalence measure similarity by the extent to which the actors have similar relationships to other actors or objects, the proposed model views two actors similar if they have similar relationships to similar actors or objects. The second principle emphasizes consistency among similarities: not only are actors similar if they have similar relationships to similar objects, but at the same time objects are similar if similar actors relate to them similarly. We examine the behavior of the proposed similarity model through simulations, and re-analyze two classic datasets: the Davis et al. (1941) data on club membership and the roll-call data of the U.S. Senate. We find that the generalized model of similarity is especially useful if (1) the dimensions of comparison are not independent, or (2) the data are sparse, or (3) the boundaries between clusters are not clear.     

Partitioning large signed two-mode networks: Problems and prospects

While a substantial amount of attention within social network analysis (SNA) has been given to the study of one-mode networks, there is an increasing consideration of two-mode networks. Recent research on signed networks resulted in the relaxed structural balance (RSB) approach and its subsequent extension to signed two-mode networks involving social actors and social objects. We extend this approach to large signed two-mode networks, and address the methodological issues that arise. We develop tools to partition these types of networks and compare them with other approaches using a recently collected dataset of United Nations General Assembly roll call votes. Although our primary purpose is methodological, we take the first step towards bridging Heider's structural balance theory with recent theorizing in international relations on soft balancing of power processes.     

Public diplomacy networks: China’s public diplomacy communication practices in twitter during Two Sessions

This study illustrates the Two Sessions and proposes the concept of public diplomacy network to investigate the effect of China’s public diplomacy communication on Twitter. Twitter data comprising 14,874 tweets and 7773 users was collected during March 5 to March 20 in 2018, the combination of social network analysis and content analysis were employed from a holistic, relational and networked approach. The results present public diplomacy networks’ structural characteristics, key participants’ networking patterns, communication strategies, issue participation, and homophily effect that participants who take the same attitude towards China (negative & neutral or positive) are clustered in each group. In conclusion, although China’s state-owed media takes the lead in public diplomacy communication, foreign practitioners dominate the NGOs, researchers, correspondents, and generally take negative attitude towards China. China’s media outlets underperform in allying closely, and China is entrenched in traditional one-way monologue. The theoretical, methodological and practical implications are addressed.     

Socio-material network analysis: A mixed method study of five European artistic collectives

In this paper, I argue that we can better understand the relationship between social structure and materiality by combining qualitative analysis of practices in shared physical space with statistical analysis. Drawing on the two-mode approach, I treat social and material structures together with the relationship between them as a two-level socio-material network. In a mixed method study, formalized ethnographic data on such networks in five European artistic collectives are subjected to multilevel exponential random graph modelling. It sheds light on how different kinds of interpersonal ties condition the engagement of individuals with similar materiality over time.     

Assessing the performance of the bootstrap in simulated assemblage networks

Archaeologists are increasingly interested in networks constructed from site assemblage data, in which weighted network ties reflect sites’ assemblage similarity. Equivalent networks would arise in other scientific fields where actors’ similarity is assessed by comparing distributions of observed counts, so the assemblages studied here can represent other kinds of distributions in other domains. One concern with such work is that sampling variability in the assemblage network and, in turn, sampling variability in measures calculated from the network must be recognized in any comprehensive analysis. In this study, we investigated the use of the bootstrap as a means of estimating sampling variability in measures of assemblage networks. We evaluated the performance of the bootstrap in simulated assemblage networks, using a probability structure based on the actual distribution of sherds of ceramic wares in a region with 25 archaeological sites. Results indicated that the bootstrap was successful in estimating the true sampling variability of eigenvector centrality for the 25 sites. This held both for centrality scores and for centrality ranks, as well as the ratio of first to second eigenvalues of the network (similarity) matrix. Findings encourage the use of the bootstrap as a tool in analyses of network data derived from counts.     

Francisco Varela,Relational Psychoanalysis,and the Post-Phenomenological

Taking the work of Francisco Varela beyond his own phenomenological approach to neurobiology explored by Simón Guendelman, Sebastián Medeiros, and Ricardo Pulido, I turn to what in the last year of Varela’s life he proposed about the body when writing on organ transplantation and technology. I link this to the recent elaboration of a post-phenomenological phenomenology in critical theory, philosophy, and media studies and indicate the implications for a relational psychoanalysis. I also speculate on what direction we might take Varela’s engagement with Buddhism.     

Shifting frames: Collective action framing from a dialogic and relational perspective

This article discusses (a) sustained critiques of framing theory and of collective action frames, (b) the development and implications of a dialogic and relational alternative, and (c) suggestions for how to pursue this alternative approach using mental models. Proponents of framing theory have advocated that a dialogic and relational alternative could prove fruitful in advancing sociological understanding of the variety of contexts in which social movement discourse takes place. Drawing insights from the work of several scholars, I propose what this alternative entails in terms of both theory and research. Parallel to the development of relational sociology, academics have developed discourse mapping techniques that blend network analysis with cultural analysis. I suggest that one way researchers can integrate a dialogic and relational approach into their analyses of framing is through the use of mental models.     

Strategic coupling as capacity: how seaports connect to global flows of containerized transport

Strategic coupling refers to the process of matching local assets with global network demands. Although the concept has benefited from an increase in relational thinking, several critical issues remain unresolved. In this article, we identify and discuss three such issues – the characteristics of the entities involved in strategic coupling, the way in which the ‘local’ is conceptualized in the context of ‘global’ positioning, and the understanding of strategic action. To address these issues, we use Cox's notion of ‘spaces of dependence and engagement’ in combination with Ball's concept of the ‘structure of provision’. The case of the port of Rotterdam demonstrates the value of our perspective in elucidating the process of ‘strategic coupling’ within global networks of containerized traffic.     

Some properties of structural equivalence measures derived from sociometric choice data

I discuss and illustrate the extent to which different relation measures and pattern similarity measures can be expected to generate different structural equivalence results. Measures of network relations and pattern similarity are reviewed to establish clear comparisons between structural equivalence measures. Using Monte Carlo sociometric choice data drawn from four strategically designed study populations, alternative relation and pattern similarity measures are combined in a factorial design generating six measures of structural equivalence within each study population. I report the magnitudes of differences between structural equivalence measures within populations, compared across populations. Three conclusions are drawn: (1) There is significant reliability across alternative measures. (2) This reliability increases with the clarity of boundaries between statuses in a study population. (3) The noticeable differences between structural equivalence measures that exist under conditions at all weaker than strong equivalence are principally a function of how relations are measured rather than how relation pattern similarities are measured. Two inferences are drawn for applied network analysis: (1) Structural equivalence should be computed from path distance measures of network relations (however normalized) rather than being computed directly from patterns of binary choice data. (2) Renewed methodological attention should shift from how we measure pattern similarity to how we measure relationships.     

Are respondents more likely to list alters with certain characteristics?: Implications for name generator data

Analyses of egocentric networks make the implicit assumption that the list of alters elicited by name generators is a complete list or representative sample of relevant alters. Based on the literature on free recall tasks and the organization of people in memory, I hypothesize that respondents presented with a name generator are more likely to name alters with whom they share stronger ties, alters who are more connected within the network, and alters with whom they interact in more settings. I conduct a survey that presents respondents with the GSS name generator and then prompts them to remember other relevant alters whom they have not yet listed. By comparing the alters elicited before and after prompts I find support for the first two hypotheses. I then go on to compare network-level measures calculated with the alters elicited by the name generator to the same measures calculated with data from all alters. These measures are not well correlated. Furthermore, the degree of underestimation of network size is related to the networks’ mean closeness, density, and mean duration of relationships. Higher values on these variables result in more accurate estimation of network size. This suggests that measures of egocentric network properties based on data collected using a single name generator may have high levels of measurement error, possibly resulting in misestimation of how these network properties relate to other variables.     

Analyzing event stream dynamics in two-mode networks: An exploratory analysis of private communication in a question and answer community

Information about social networks can often be collected as event stream data. However, most methods in social network analysis are defined for static network snapshots or for panel data. We propose an actor oriented Markov process framework to analyze the structural dynamics in event streams. Estimated parameters are similar to what is known from exponential random graph models or stochastic actor oriented models as implemented in SIENA. We apply the methodology on a question and answer web community and show how the relevance of different kinds of one- and two-mode network structures can be tested using a new software.