Class 18 (English 197 – Fall 2022)

This is the main course website. There is also a course Canvas site for uploading assignments.

Class Business

Office hours today?

ESCIs for course can be filled out until midnight next Friday, Dec. 2

Assignments for Last  Week of Course

Practicums 7 & 8: Social Network Analysis Exercises

Student outputs (Part A)

Student outputs (Part B)

  • Anya Macomber
  • Jake Houser
  • Yiu-On
  • Kyle Rokes
  • Stella Jia

  • Social Network analyses of Marvel universe: A | B | C

1. Nodes

One of the most potent ideas in the social sciences is the notion that individuals are embedded in thick webs of social relations and interactions. Social network theory provides an answer to a question that has preoccupied social philosophy since the time of Plato, namely, the problem of social order: how autonomous individuals can combine to create enduring, functioning societies. (Borgatti, et al., 892)

A node
A node
Collage of social network analysis graphs

Figure 1 in Stephen P. Borgatti, et al., "Network Analysis in the Social Sciences" (2019)
Figure 1 in Stephen P. Borgatti, et al., “Network Analysis in the Social Sciences” (2019). (See Jacob L. Moreno, Who Shall Survive? A New Approach to the Problem of Human Interrelations (1934), e.g., pp. 78, 89)

Fleuron icon (small)

Agent Based Modeling

  • Cellular Automata
    • Conway’s Game of Life: 1 | 2 | 3 
    • Rules:
      1. Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies.
      2. Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation.
      3. Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies.
      4. Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell.
  • Agent-based modeling tools — e.g., Netlogo
  • Eric Bonabeau, “Agent-Based Modeling: Methods and Techniques for Simulating Human Systems” (2002)

2. Edges

An edge

"A typology of ties studied in social network analysis" (Figure 3 in Stephen P. Borgatti, et al., "Network Analysis in the Social Sciences," 2019)
“A typology of ties studied in social network analysis” (Figure 3 in Stephen P. Borgatti, et al., “Network Analysis in the Social Sciences,” 2019)

Robert Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre: And Other Episodes in French Cultural History, 2010 (cover)

The funniest thing that ever happened in the printing shop of Jacques Vincent, according to a worker who witnessed it, was a riotous massacre of cats….

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Actor-Network Theory

Diagram from Wikipedia article on Media Richness Theory
Diagram from Wikipedia article on “Media Richness Theory”

3. Structure

4. Historical & Fictional Networks

Historical Networks

Figure 2. "Narrative structure of Nazi life history" (Peter S. Bearman and Katherine Stovel, “Becoming a Nazi: A Model for Narrative Networks," 2000)
Figure 2. “Narrative structure of Nazi life history” (Peter S. Bearman and Katherine Stovel, “Becoming a Nazi: A Model for Narrative Networks,” 2000)

“Network Graph for the Sphere of Action of Violence, 1921-1922” (Roberto Franzosi, Quantitative Narrative Analysis, figure 4.7)

Fictional Networks

Franco Moretti, “Network Theory, Plot Analysis” (2011), Figure 28
Franco Moretti, “Network Theory, Plot Analysis” (2011), Figure 28.

Historical vs. Fictional Networks

William Shakepeare's social network (from Six Degrees of Francis Bacon)
William Shakepeare’s social network (from Six Degrees of Francis Bacon)

Franco Moretti, “Network Theory, Plot Analysis” (2011), Figure 28
Franco Moretti, “Network Theory, Plot Analysis” (2011), Figure 28.

4. Other Issues?

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Vizualization styles of different historical periods preceding the era of social network graphs

Vizualization styles of different historical periods preceding the era of social network graphs.

 

Fleuron icon (small)

This is the main course website. There is also a course Canvas site for uploading assignments.
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