The book provides a comprehensive overview of the field, outlining both its theoretical basis and its key techniques. Drawing from the core ideas of points, lines and paths, John Scott builds a framework of network analysis that covers such measures as density, centrality, clustering, centralisation, and spatialisation. He identifies the various types of clique, component, and circle into which networks are formed, and he outlines an approach to socially structured positions within networks. A completely new chapter in this edition discusses recent work on network dynamics and methods for studying change over time. A final chapter discusses approaches to network visualisation.
This is an excellent resource for researchers across the social sciences and for students of social theory and research methods.
John Scott is a Visiting Professor at the Universities of Essex, Exeter, and Copenhagen. He was formerly Professor of Sociology and Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research at Plymouth University and before that was Professor of Sociology at Essex University and Leicester University. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, a Fellow of the Academy of learned Societies in the Social Sciences, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. An active member of the British Sociological Association, he has held the posts of Secretary, Treasurer, Chairperson, and President. His most recent publications are Conceptualising the Social World (Cambridge University Press, 2011), The Sage Handbook of Social Network Analysis (edited with Peter Carrington, Sage Publications, 2011), and Sociology (with James Fulcher, Oxfords University Press, 2011). His current work on the history of British sociology will appears as Envisioning Sociology. Victor Branford, Patrick Geddes, and the Quest for Social Reconstruction (with Ray Bromley, SUNY Press, 2013).