Social network (sociology)

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In the sociology referred social network is a network between a plurality of persons, which as a mutual interaction is mapped braid, for example, as, acquaintance network or as Kindred (personal relationship network).

term

Social network towards an individual

The term "social network" is a description of social interactions of any type and was in the English first Social Anthropology (see. Ethnosociology ) of J. Clyde Mitchell , AL Epstein, Bruce Kapferer , etc. (from the Manchester School used) to loose self-organizations of to identify and explain individual immigrants in colonial industrial cities (e.g. in today's Zambia ).

The term was then carried over to Europe to e.g. B. to track down informal influencing factors for marital division of labor (Elizabeth Bott), and in Germany especially used by Franz Urban Pappi , Peter Kappelhoff and others to develop decision-making processes in local politics (cf. urban sociology ). In the USA, the empirical network research was founded by Harrison C. White and popularized primarily through the work of Granovetter in the 1980s. After almost thirty years of dominance in survey research, a no longer just individual-centered perspective came to the fore in sociology, which brought the relationships between the actors back to the fore. In this way, approaches from formal sociology by Georg Simmel and Leopold von Wiese were taken up and expanded.

The usefulness of this approach was that “social networks” do not have a “main goal”, but rather link very different goals of individual actors and through them also individual groups. An analytical term was previously lacking for this in particular. Another very important early application for analyzing social networks was the classic Moreno sociometry in the first half of the 20th century, named after the doctor and psychiatrist Jacob L. Moreno (1932, 1934). His sociometry is best known for graphical depictions of networks and relationships, but also for possibilities of network intervention in psychosocial work or in the “network therapy ” of the integrative therapy Hilarion Petzold (1979).

The scope and density of the network, the goals or functions (what do the participants want?) And the quality of the relationships come into consideration as description categories.

The size and density of the network

An example of a social network diagram, the node with the highest intermediation centrality is highlighted in yellow.

The head count (size) of a person's social network is often relatively constant beyond childhood. At first it grows with age, but then it becomes more gender and socio-economic, e.g. B. depends on the professional conditions in which the participants live. People with low status, low education and low incomes have less extensive networks, which then primarily consist of family members. Resource-rich networks with a high "supportive valence" promote safety and health. Network diagnostics and networking that establish affiliations, for example with the neighborhood or self-help initiatives, are therefore particularly important for socially marginalized groups , for migrants, drug addicts and elderly patients.

The density of a social network describes the direct connection between the network participants of a person. The "denser" such a network is (everyone knows each other), the more it controls this person, but also offers reliable network resources; the “looser” it is, the less (cf. network poverty ).

Goals and function of the network

According to the definition, the social network of an actor is his social interaction with individuals (compare also Kindred as a family network). Hence it has no direct goals .

Regardless of the aimlessness of the networks, due to their size and density they can have a social function , for example in the formation and social redistribution of “ social capital ”. Examples: Affiliations in traditional societies or modern upper classes , promotion of professional advancement through “ networking ”.

Networks are used instrumentally. This aspect emphasized in particular Ronald S. Burt in his theory of structural holes (structural holes) and recommends to position themselves near these holes.

Quality of relationships in the network

The quality of social relationships plays a crucial role in social networks. It ranges from acquaintances that the US-American sociologist and economist Mark Granovetter called in 1973 as "weak ties" (weak ties) to intimate ranging and long-lasting "strong relations" (strong ties) . Granovetter cites the following guidelines for assessing the quality of a relationship:

  1. the amount of time two people spend together
  2. the intimacy that connects them
  3. mutual familiarity
  4. the services that people share with each other (such as information or favors)

A more recent concept and observation criterion in social research is that of the “confidante”: advice is more likely to be given and also accepted by such a person than by largely strangers or by people who are in direct authority. In societies that derive their descent from the maternal line ( matrilineal ) , the biological father is not so much an important confidant for a young man , but the mother's brother, also known in German as an uncle (the maternal uncle ). In patrilineal aristocratic or patrician families in the European era , the caring wet nurse was a more important confidant for a young woman than her mother.

When older people die, at some point they lose the person they trust, who cannot simply be replaced by someone else. Older people with little education and low incomes often expressed more feelings of loneliness than better-off older people.

Interaction between social network and health

There is an interaction between social relationships and health, which is described by the “Social Selection” and “Social Causation” models.

The “Social Selection Model” assumes that the state of health and the resulting stress have an impact on social relationships. Often a person's social network shrinks when they become ill with an illness or their health deteriorates. This is related to the fact that people withdraw from their social environment because they either have an unfounded fear of being infected or because they are overwhelmed with the situation. Trying to support the sick person with their suffering, pain or worries can be accompanied by feelings of frustration, inadequacy or helplessness and can be a burden for the supporter. The person concerned perceives such a turning away from their social environment and also withdraws. The time aspect must also be taken into account, since in chronic illnesses the existing stress is long-lasting in contrast to acute illnesses. How the person concerned deals with their health or illness and their social environment is just as dependent on their personality traits as, for example, social skills or personal coping strategies.

The "Social Causation model" instead assumes that the social relationships affect health. Social relationships can have an influence on the predisposition, manifestation and course of a disease. They can protect those affected from stress and strain and thus shield the risk factors for the development of an illness ("buffer effect"). Already the feeling of belonging and the associated opportunity to seek and receive help has a protective effect on those affected. In addition, social relationships influence the health behavior and the physiological factors of the sick person and thus have an indirect effect on their health. On the one hand, health-promoting behaviors are strengthened through close relationships by showing positive model behavior or giving health-promoting instructions, advice and cues. On the other hand, according to studies, people who are married or have children behave less risky and pay more attention to themselves and their health than single, divorced or childless people. Nevertheless, close relationships can also be harmful to health if, for example, bad eating habits, physical inactivity, smoking and alcohol consumption are common within the social environment.

The availability of close and close caregivers and the support they provide play an important role in the event of illness. Studies show that people with small social networks and little available social support have a higher risk of morbidity and mortality than people with a large social environment and more social support.

effect

Global social networks, as they arise in the form of network communities through the use of social software , have not yet been adequately researched with regard to their sociological, cultural and political consequences, while there are already a number of studies on the economic and usage-specific aspects.

For peace research, it would be important, for example, whether such global social networks tend to lead to the emergence of new enemy images (e.g. towards minorities), or whether they tend to serve peace, since those in power provide pre-emptive justifications for hostilities by those in power worldwide exchange of information can be quickly exposed and debunked.

In any case, global social networks go hand in hand with an unprecedented momentum of their own in the formation of opinion among the global public.

software

Social networks can be collected, displayed and analyzed with the help of computer programs.

A list of software tools:

Surname link
EgoNet http://sourceforge.net/projects/egonet
Gephi http://gephi.org/
MyNetworkmap http://www.mynetworkmap.com
NodeXL http://nodexl.codeplex.com/
Pajek http://mrvar.fdv.uni-lj.si/pajek/
R sna package http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/sna/index.html
UCINET http://www.analytictech.com/ucinet/
VennMaker http://www.vennmaker.com/
Visons http://www.visone.info/

See also

literature

  • Ronald S. Burt: Structural Holes. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA 1992.
  • Nicholas A. Christakis, James H. Fowler: Connected. The power of social networks and why happiness is contagious. Translated from English by Jürgen Neubauer. S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-10-011350-4 .
  • Alain Degenne, Michel Forse: Introducing social networks . SAGE Publications 1994.
  • JH Fowler, CT Dawes, NA Christakis: Model of Genetic Variation in Human Social Networks. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Volume 106, H. 6, 2009, pp. 1720-1724.
  • Friedrich Fürstenberg: The power potential of global networks. In: Friedrich Fürstenberg, Georg W. Oesterdiekhoff: Globalization without borders. Dr. Kovac, Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-8300-1114-8 , pp. 35-56.
  • Markus Gamper, Linda Reschke (Ed.): Knots and Edges. Social network analysis in economic and migration research. transcript, Bielefeld 2010, ISBN 978-3-8376-1311-7 .
  • Markus Gamper, Linda Reschke, Michael Schönhuth (Eds.): Knots and Edges 2.0. Social network analysis in media research and cultural anthropology. transcript, Bielefeld 2012, ISBN 978-3-8376-1927-0 .
  • Markus Gamper, Michael Kronenwett: Visual survey of ego-centered networks with the help of digital network maps. In: Sabrina Kulin, Keno Frank, Detlef Fickermann, Knut Schwippert (eds.): Social network analysis. Theory - Methods - Practice. Münster 2012, ISBN 978-3-8309-2672-6 , pp. 151-166.
  • Mark Granovetter : The strength of weak ties. ( Memento of March 27, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) In: American Journal of Sociology. Volume 78, H. 6, 1973, pp. 1360-1380. (PDF; 2.2 MB)
  • W. Hass, HG Petzold: The importance of research on social networks, network therapy and social support for psychotherapy - diagnostic and therapeutic perspectives. In: HG Petzold, M. Märtens (Ed.): Paths to effective psychotherapies. Psychotherapy research and practice. Volume 1: Models, Concepts, Settings. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 1999, pp. 193-272.
  • Sascha Häusler: Social networks on the Internet. Development, forms and potentials for commercial use. Vdm Verlag Dr. Müller, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-8364-5264-9 .
  • Eelke Heemskerk, Meindest Fennema: Network Dynamics of the Dutch Business Elite. In: International Sociology. Vol. 24, 2009, H. 6, pp. 807-832.
  • Francisco WS Lima, Tarik Hadzibeganovic, Dietrich Stauffer: Evolution of ethnocentrism on undirected and directed Barabási-Albert networks. In: Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications. Volume 388, H. 24, 2009, pp. 4999-5004.
  • J. Clyde Mitchell : Social Networks in urban situations : Analyzes of personal relationships in Central African towns. University Press, Manchester 1969.
  • Tobias Müller-Prothmann: Leveraging Knowledge Communication for Innovation. Framework, Methods and Applications of Social Network Analysis in Research and Development. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin / Bern / Bruxelles / New York, / Oxford / Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-631-55165-7 .
  • Wouter de Nooy, Andrej Mrvar, Vladimir Batagelj: Exploratory Social Network Analysis with Pajek. Cambridge University Press, 2005.
  • Dorothea Jansen: Introduction to network analysis: basics, methods, research examples. Wiesbaden 2006.
  • Boris Ricken, David Seidl: Invisible Networks. How social network analysis can be used for companies. Wiesbaden 2010.
  • John Scott: Social Network Analysis: A Handbook. 2nd Edition. Sage, Newberry Park, CA 2000.
  • Christian Stegbauer : Wikipedia. The puzzle of cooperation. VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2009, ISBN 978-3-531-16589-9 .
  • Christian Stegbauer, Roger Häußling (Ed.): Handbuch Netzwerkforschung. VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-531-15808-2 .
  • Steven H. Strogatz: Exploring complex networks. In: Nature. Volume 410, 2001, pp. 268-276.
  • Hillard von Thiessen, Christian Windler (ed.): Proximity in the distance. Personal entanglement in the external relations of the early modern period . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2005.
  • Stanley Wassermann, Katherine Faust: Social Network Analysis. Methods and Applications. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1994.
  • Duncan J. Watts: Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age. WW Norton & Company , 2004.
  • Johannes Weyer: Social Networks. Oldenbourg, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-25257-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ J. Mitchell: The Concept and Use of Social Networks. In: J. Mitchell (Ed.): Social Networks in Urban Situations. Manchester 1969.
  2. ^ Harrison C. White: Anatomy of Kinship. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs 1963.
  3. ^ Lars Clausen : Network density. In: Werner Fuchs-Heinritz u. a. (Ed.): Lexicon for Sociology. 4th edition. Wiesbaden 2007, p. 456 f.
  4. ↑ Mark Granovetter : The Strength of Weak Ties. In: American Journal of Sociology. Year 78, 1973, pp. 1360–1380, here p. ??.
  5. ↑ George C. Homans : Theory of the Social Group. 6th edition. Opladen 1972, p. ??.
  6. ↑ a b M. Eller, A. Mielck, R. Landgraf: "Friends make sugar sweet!" A literature review of the relationship between diabetes mellitus and the social network or social support. In: U. Otto, P. Bauer (Ed.): Working together professionally with networks. Volume 1: Social networks in life course and life situation perspective. dgvt-Verlag, Tübingen 2005, p. 403f.
  7. ^ A. Leppin, R. Schwarzer: Social support, illness and health behavior. In: R. Schwarzer (Ed.): Health Psychology. A textbook. Hogrefe, Göttingen 1997, p. 356.
  8. ^ A. Leppin, R. Schwarzer: Social support, illness and health behavior. In: R. Schwarzer (Ed.): Health Psychology. A textbook. Hogrefe, Göttingen 1997, pp. 353, 362f.
  9. ↑ M. Eller, A. Mielck, R. Landgraf: "Friends make sugar sweet!" A literature review of the relationship between diabetes mellitus and the social network or social support. In: U. Otto, P. Bauer (Ed.): Working together professionally with networks. Volume 1: Social networks in life course and life situation perspective. dgvt-Verlag, Tübingen 2005, p. 405f.