Comm / Soci 481 : Social Networks : Course Blog

Week 15 (April 24) – Social Inequality

2008-04-17T12:49:41Z

Fernandez, Roberto and David Harris. (1992). Social Isolation and the Underclass. Pp. 257-293 in Drugs, Crime, and Social Isolation, edited by Adele Harrell and George Peterson: The Urban Institute.

Marsden, Peter, and Jeanne Hurlbert. (1988). Social Resources and Mobility Outcomes. Social Forces 66:1038-1059.

Week 14 (April 17) - Health

2008-04-10T14:00:00Z

Cohen, S., Brissette, I., Doyle, W. J., & Skoner, D. P. (2000). Social Integration and Health: The Case of the Common Cold. Journal of Social Structure 1(3).

Dickens, C.M., L. McGowen, C. Percival, J. Douglas, B. Tomensen, L. Cotter, A Heagerty, and F.H. Creed. (2004). Lack of Close Confidant, but not Depression, Predicts Further Cardiac Events After Myocardial Infraction. Heart 90(5): 518-522.

Christakis, N.A. & Fowler, J.H. (2007). The Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network over 32 Years. The New England Journal of Medicine, 357: 370-379.

Bearman, P. S., Moody, J., & Stovel, K. (2004). Chains of Affection: The Structure of Adolescent Romantic and Sexual Networks. American Journal of Sociology, 110(1), 44-91.

Week 13 (April 10) – Search Process and Information Flow

2008-04-03T16:27:49Z

Tepperman, Lorne. (1975). Deviance as a Search Process. Canadian Journal of Sociology 1 (3): 277-294.

Rogers, Everett. (2003). Diffusion Networks. Pp. 300-364 in Diffusion of Innovations. New York: The Free Press.

Markus, Lynne (1987). Toward a ‘Critical Mass’ Theory of Interactive Media: Universal Access, Interdependences and Diffusion. Communication Research 14(5): 491-511.

Metcalf, Bob (2006, August 18). Guest Blogger Bob Metcalf’s Law Recurses Down the Long Tail of Social Networks. VCMike’s Blog. Retrieved on January 1, 2007: http://vcmike.wordpress.com/2006/08/18/metcalfe-social-networks/

Assignment #4 : Network Measures.

2008-03-27T14:01:00Z

Administer the survey in the assignment handout to a minimum of 20 people. The survey consists of a small number of demographic questions, a position generator, and a name generator. Half of your interviews must be with people between the age of 18 and 22, the other half must be over the age of 35. Within each age group half of your interviews must be with men, the other half with women.

After completing your surveys analyze and discuss your findings in relation to the course readings. At a minimum, your findings should include a discussion of the following course themes and topics: social support, network size, network density, community, privatization, network diversity, strong ties, weak ties, homophily, the role of new media (i.e. the Internet, mobile phones, and related technologies), and issues of measurement as they pertain to this survey. Some of these topics may be overlapping, you may address them point-by-point or you may integrate them into a more holistic or focused analysis. You may find it helpful to conduct your analysis as a comparison between different types of survey participants. For example, comparing men and women, young and old, big networks vs. small networks, those with diverse networks vs. those who are less diverse, etc. (there are many possibilities for comparison).

You must provide evidence and references from the course readings to substantiate your findings / conclusions.

Submit your findings in the form of a blog post of 1250-1750 words. Print your full name and your blog username on the top of each survey, staple them together and hand in to the course instructor at the end of class.

Note that the occupations listed in the position generator included in this survey are ranked in order of occupational prestige, highest at the top, lowest at the bottom.

Week 12 (April 3) – Computer Networks as Social Networks II.

2008-03-27T14:00:00Z

Marks, Paul (2006, June 9). Pentagon sets its sights on social networking websites. New Scientist. http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19025556.200

Hodgkinson, Tom (2008, January 14). With friends like these... . The Gardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/14/facebook

Ellison, N., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The Benefits of Facebook ‘Friends:’ Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4). http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/ellison.html

Miyata, Kakuko, Boase, Jeffrey., & Wellman, Barry (2008). The Social Effects of Keitai and Personal Computer E-mail in Japan. In Handbook of Mobile Communication Studies, edited by James Katz. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Hampton, Keith, et al (forthcoming). WiFi and Public Space, a Poor Interface? An Empirical Study of Wireless Internet Use and Sociability.

Wellman, Barry (2001). Physical Place and Cyber Place: The Rise of Personalized Networking. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 25(2), 227-252.

Week 11 (March 27) – Small World Assignment Part II and III

2008-03-20T14:00:00Z

NOTE: If you cannot attend class, it is your responsibility to have a classmate collect your small university findings for the in class portion of this assignment. Your small university and group material will be available after class from reception in the main ASC office.

Part II (In class)
Complete the group worksheet. Your group only needs to complete one copy of the worksheet; the completed worksheet will be photocopied and distributed to all members of the class for use during Part III of this assignment.

Each group will make a short presentation for 2% of your final grade

UPDATE: Results of class assignment; group worksheets for targets Jack and Kimberly

Part III
Make sure you have a copy of the completed Part II group worksheet for both targets, and that you have your own returned postcards / folder and a copy of the Part III assignment handout.

Read the following article:
Stevenson, William B., Barbara Davidson, Ivan Manev and Kate Walsh. 1997. The Small World of the University: A Classroom Exercise in the Study of Networks. Connections 20(2): 23-33.

Taking into account your own experience with this experiment and the aggregate results for both targets, discuss the findings of the “Small University Experiment” in a blog post of 1250-2000 words. Make sure to explicitly address relevant class readings (including the above article by Stevenson et al.), as well your own questions and hypotheses posted in response to the Part 1 Handout. Consider possible causes for the relative success or failure of folder delivery to the two targets based on the aggregate results, as well as possible reasons for your own folder being delivered or not. In addition, try to identify relevant points accounting for the similarities and differences between the class results and that conducted by Stevenson et al.

At the start of your blog post for this assignment, include a link to your blog post for Part I.

Part III is worth 10% of your final grade.

Week 9 (March 13) – Spring Break (NO CLASS!)

2008-03-06T15:00:00Z

Week 10 (March 20) -- Computer Networks as Social Networks I.

2008-03-05T15:05:00Z

Kronholz , June (2003, February 13). After the Science Fair: Dear World, Please Stop Writing Me: A Girl's E-Mail Experiment Clogs In-Box for Weeks. The Wall Street Journal: A1.

Wellman, Barry and Milena Gulia. 1999. Net-Surfers Don’t Ride Alone: Virtual Communities as Communities. Pp. 331-366 in Networks in the Global Village, edited by Barry Wellman. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Hampton, Keith & Barry Wellman (2003). Neighboring in Netville: How the Internet Supports Community and Social Capital in a Wired Suburb. City and Community 2(4), 277-311.

Baym, N., Zhang, Y. B., & Lin, M.-C. (2004). Social Interactions Across Media: Interpersonal Communication on the Internet, Telephone and Face-to-Face. New Media & Society, 6(3), 299-318.

Mesch, Gustavo, & Talmud, Ilan. (2007). Similarity and the Quality of Online and Offline Social Relationships Among Adolescents in Israel. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 17(2), 455-466.

Assignment 3 : New Media Communication Diary

2008-02-28T18:30:00Z

Your assignment is to keep a diary of all interactions you have with people using “new media” (i.e. mobile phones and the Internet). You must record every interaction that you have with another person using new media over a full 7 day period. Record your interactions in the diary provided in the assignment handout. Record your interactions shortly after they happen, do not wait and complete the diary retrospectively at the end of the day or week.

For each interaction, record the date and time, the first name and last initial of the person, the type of support exchanged (indicate gave and/or received), the medium of communication used, your location at the time of the interaction, your best guess at how far away the person is (miles), your relationship to the person, the person’s sex and age, how long you have known the person, and your tie strength. See the attached legend for a coding scheme that you can use to record “type of support,” “medium,” location,” “relationship,” and “tie strength”.

After you have recorded your interactions for the full 7 days, analyze your diary and write a blog post answering the questions in the handout. Your blog post should be 1250-1750 words, not including your answer to question 1. For question 2 and 3, be sure to discuss your answer with reference to the course readings. For example, are your observations consistent or inconsistent with the readings? Do they provide new evidence for or against existing hypotheses? Based on your observations can you formulate new hypotheses, theories, or conclusions that build or contrast with the literature you have read?

IMPORTANT NOTES:

You must complete your diary before spring break begins (or your diary will not represent a typical week).
This assignment is worth 15% of your final grade, not the 10% original printed on the course outline.

Week 8 (March 6) – Measurement

2008-02-28T15:00:00Z

Zwijze-Koning, K., & Jong, M. D. T. d. (2005). Auditing Information Structures in Organizations. Organizational Research methods, 8(4), 429-453.

Marin, Alexandra & Keith Hampton (2007). Simplifying the Personal Network Name Generator: Alternatives to Traditional Multiple and Single Name Generators. Field Methods 19(2), 163-193.

Lin, Nan, Yang-chih Fu, & Ray-May Hsung. (2001). The Position Generator: Measurement Techniques for Investigations of Social Capital. Pp. 57-84 in Social Capital: Theory and Research, edited by Nan Lin, Karen Cook, and Ronald Burt. New York: Aldine De Gruyter.

van der Gaag, Martin and Tom .A.B. Snijders. (2005). The Resource Generator: Social Capital Quantification with Concrete Items. Social Networks 27(1): 1-29.

Week 7 (February 28) – Popularity, Centrality and Prestige

2008-02-21T15:00:00Z

Freeman, Linton. 1979. Centrality in Social Networks: Conceptual Clarification. Social Networks 1: 215-39.

Krebs, V. (2002). Uncloaking Terrorist Networks. First Monday, 7(4).

Valente, T., Unger, J., & Johnson, A. (2005). Do popular students smoke? The association between popularity and smoking among middle school students. Journal of Adolescent Health, 37, 323-329.

Week 6 (February 21) – Network Size and Homophily.

2008-02-14T15:00:00Z

Readings:

McPherson, Miller, Lynn Smith-Lovin and James Cook. (2001). Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social Networks. Annual Review of Sociology 27: 415-444.

Pearson, M., Steglich, C., & Snijders, T. (2006). Homophily and assimilation among sport-active adolescent substance users. Connections, 27(1), 47-63.

Hill, R. A., & Dunbar, R. I. M. (2003). Social Network Size in Humans. Human Nature, 14(1), 53-72.

Killworth, Peter, Eugene Johnsen, H Russell Bernard, Gene Ann Shelley, and Christopher McCarthy. 1990. Estimating the Size of Personal Networks. Social Networks 12: 289-312.

Assignment #2 : Important Matters

2008-02-07T18:30:00Z

Listen to Prof. Lynn Smith-Lovin (Duke University) and Prof. Robert Putnam (Harvard University) on WUNC "State of Things" (June 27, 2006). [the MP3 audio file can be found on Blackboard under "Assignments"]

This interview discusses this article:

McPherson, M., Smith-Lovin, L., & Brashears, M. E. (2006). Social Isolation in America: Changes in Core Discussion Networks over Two Decades. American Sociological Review, 71, 353-375.

Based on the article, interview, and course readings, write a blog post (500-750 words) answering the questions in the handout. Be sure to provide evidence based on the course readings.

Week 5 (February 14) – Community

2008-02-07T15:00:00Z

Readings:
Bott, Elizabeth. (1955). Urban Families: Conjugal Roles and Social Networks. Human Relations 8:345-83

Fischer, Claude. (1982). To Dwell Among Friends. Berkeley: University of California Press. [Ch. 1, 7-10]

Wellman, Barry, and Scot Wortley. (1990). Different Strokes From Different Folks: Community Ties and Social Support. American Journal of Sociology 96(3):558-88.

Kalmijn, M. (2003). Shared friendship networks and the life course. Social Networks, 25, 231-249.

Assignment #1 (Part 1) Small University Experiment

2008-01-31T18:30:00Z

Your assignment is to get your small university folder to the target person through the shortest chain of intermediaries. Start the chain by passing your folder to a member of the University of Pennsylvania community that you have had at least several conversations with outside the classroom and who is more likely than you to reach the target person. Each intermediary is instructed to return a postcard describing themselves. Write a blog post (500-700 words) answering the questions in the assignment handout. When possible, provide references from the course readings to support your answers.

Important points to remember:

List yourself as the first person on your small university folder roster, remember to complete and mail a postcard from the folder.
You cannot start the chain by giving the folder to a classmate, or to the course instructor.
Link your blog post to the Trackback URL for this post.