Neighbourhood-based models for social networks
(2001)Abstract
We argue that social networks can be modeled as the outcome of processes that occur in overlapping local regions of the network, termed _local social neighborhoods_. Each neighborhood is conceived as a possible site of interaction and corresponds to a subset of possible network ties. In this paper, we discuss hypotheses about the form of these neighborhoods, and we present two new and theoretically plausible ways in which neighborhood-based models for networks can be constructed. In the first, we introduce the notion of a _setting structure_, a directly hypothesized (or observed) set of exogenous constraints on possible neighborhood forms. In the second, we propose higher-order neighborhoods that are generated, in part, by the outcome of interactive network process themselves. Applications of both approaches to model construction are presented, and the developments are considered within a general conceptual framework of locale for social networks. We show how assumptions about neighborhoods can be cast within a hierarchy of increasingly complex models; these models represent a progressively greater capacity for network processes to ``reach'' across a network through long cycles or semi-paths. We argue that this class of models holds new promise for the development of empirically plausible models for networks and networks-based processes.
Description
March 2008
