Social Networks

Catalog description

Social networks are vast webs of interconnected social actors, which provide a vital foundation for social structure. This course introduces students to the social network and social capital paradigms, and provides a glimpse into the fascinating and complex architecture of networks that are formed through things like everyday social contact with friends and family, romantic relationships, neighborhood ties, exchanges, conflicts, and organizational affiliations. Through lectures and readings, students will be exposed to a wide array of examples of social networks. They will learn how they act as channels of resource and information flows, and as conduits for the spread of sentiments, diseases, and the diffusion of innovations. They will learn how networks form prisms around people that affect how they view the world around them – and, ultimately, how that shaped behavior and life chances. Videos, in-class exercises, and group discussions will be interspersed throughout the semester.