Social network analysis
Social movements and diffusion of innovation
This page is part of the materials supporting Sociology
157, an undergraduate introductory course on social network analysis. The course is taught
by Robert A. Hanneman of the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Riverside. Feel free to use and reproduce these materials (with citation). For more information, or to offer comments,
you can send me e-mail.
Sources:
Watts, Chapters 7 and 8.
Movements and innovation:
- Introduction:
- Social Change and Social Movements areas parallel "diffusion" and "contagion"
- Many collective action problems - public goods problems have similar causes
- Early explanations:
- mania, collective hysteria, Collins' ritual rhythmic
coordination
- rational choice
- Making rational choice into social choice: Externality
- Decision or information externality - uncertainty
- Coercive externality - conformity to the group
- Market externalities and complementarity - individual utility
depends on the group
- Coordination externality: organized collective action via
incentives
Quiz
- Watts' theory of network structure, thresholds, and cascades
- Individual's thresholds vary according to their externalities
- Vulnerability = low threshold and/or few (but some) neighbors
- The "percolating cluster of vulnerables" - phase space,
and cascades
- Two types of cascades:
- upper boundary - rare but large
- lower boundary - more common but smaller
- Characteristics of the innovation and the innovator don't matter
much
- Large scale social movements and crazes are not very predictable
- Applications of Network Diffusion/Contagion/Mobilization Models
- Adoption of innovations:
- Cancian's peasants and agricultural innovation
- Coleman's doctors and penicillin
- Bainbridge's creativity and learning in organizations
- Laumann's sexual contact networks and AIDS
- Collective Action
- Marwell's "critical mass" model of public goods provision
- Gould on the Paris Commune: neighborhood versus class
- Barkey on Ottoman Villages and trade networks
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