Glosario de terminos de Análisis de Redes Sociales (ARS)

Emirbayer, M., & Goodwin, J. (1994). Network Analysis, Culture, and the Problem of Agency. American Journal of Sociology, 99(6), 1411–1454.

[Esta lista tiene errores de origen, mejor ver el artículo original en el apéndice final]

The following definitions are meant to orient the general reader to the basic terms of network analysis as well as to convey the way in which certain more general sociological concepts have been “translated” into these terms.

• Actor: A person, group, organization, thing, event, and so on, linked to others in a network. This is sometimes referred to as a “node.”
• Asymmetric tie: A relation whose form, content, or both is different for the linked actors. See also symmetric tie.
• Block: A set of structurally equivalent actors in a multiplex network. See also multiplex network and structural equivalence.
• Blockmodeling: A technique for finding or “partitioning” (and graphically representing) structurally equivalent actors (or blocks) in a network.
• Boundary problem: The problem of defining the population of actors to be studied through network analysis in a way which does not depend on a priori categories; in other words, the problem of delimiting the study of social networks which in reality may have no limits.
• Catnet (from category and network): A socially cohesive set of structurally equivalent actors hypothesized as more able and likely to share ideas or a common culture and to engage in collective action than other sorts of real or latent groups. See also social cohesion.
• Centrality: The number of an actor’s ties to others, weighted by the number of the latter’s ties to others.
• Clique: A group of actors in which each is directly and strongly linked to all of the others. Compare social circle.
• Content: The specific nature or type of relation linking actors in a network (e.g., exchange, kinship, communicative, affective, instrumental, or power relations
• Density: The ratio of actual relations or ties among a set of actors in a network and the maximum possible number of ties.
• Distance: A function of the number and strength of social ties separating two actors.
• Dualism: The idea that the nature of groups is determined by the intersection of the actors within them (i.e., by the actions of their members), and that the nature of actors is determined by the intersection of groups “within” them (i.e., by their group affiliations).
• Egocentric network: An actor (sometimes called the “anchorage”), the actors with which it has relation, and the relations among those actors. This is sometimes referred to as a “personal network.”
• Form: The formal properties of the relations among actors in a network (e.g., strength or weakness, density, symmetry or asymmetry).
• Multiplex network: A network with two or more types of relations linking actors (e.g., exchange and communication in a market or communicative and affective ties in a clique).
• Network: The set of social relations or social ties among a set of actors (and the actors themselves thus linked).
• Network structure: The patterning of relations and “holes” among actors in a network. See also structural holes.
• Position: A set of structurally equivalent actors or nodes (e.g., a block).
• Positional approach: An analysis that focuses on the patterning of structurally equivalent relations among actors. See also relational approach.
• Range: The number of an actor’s ties to others. See also centrality.
• Relational approach: An analysis that focuses on patterning of socially cohesive relations among actors. See also positional approach.
• Role: The pattern of relations of a set of structurally equivalent actors (i.e., a block) to other blocks.
• Simultaneity, the principle of. The idea that all positions and roles (see above) are determined relative to one another and thus cannot be assumed or altered independently of one another.
• Social circle: A group in which each actor is directly and strongly linked to most (e.g., 80%), but not necessarily all, others. This is sometimes called a “social cluster.” Compare clique.
• Social cohesion: The presence of a dense network of strong ties among a set of actors. See also clique and social circle.
• Social structure: The persisting pattern of ties among actors; more specifically, a network (microstructure) or the network of networks (macrostructure).
• Strength of ties: The relative frequency, duration, emotional intensity, reciprocal exchange, and so on which characterize a given tie or set of ties.
• Structural equivalence: The sharing, by a set of two or more actors who are not necessarily linked themselves, of equivalent relations to a third actor.
• Structural hole: The absence of a relation among actors in a network (a crucial element of network structure).
• Symmetric tie: A relation whose form and/or content is the same for the linked actors. See also asymmetric tie.