Join us Saturday 22 September & Sunday 23 September for a two-day training on social network analysis
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How do diseases, violence, and fashion trends spread through a population? What is the connection between global trade patterns and modern art? Does marriage affect banking relationships? How do modern technologies such as Facebook affect our intimate relationships? How cohesive are terrorist cells, and how successful are the government’s attempt at dismantling them? How does peer pressure influence obesity, smoking, and other behaviors? The answer to all these questions is based on an understanding of social networks and how they are structured.
Since people have a profound influence on forests, especially those of a small scale nature, some researchers are beginning to study the ways humans interact with one another and especially exchange forest information. People have a variety of networks that they formally or informally participate in. To what extent can people’s social networks influence forest conservation?
This workshop is an introduction to the burgeoning field of social network analysis, which spans many disciplines. The morning sessions will focus on introducing the network paradigm, its basic tenets, and methods of data collection and analysis. Topics include: a history of the field; basic graph theory, notation, and properties; network visualization; properties of actors including centrality, power, prestige, and prominence; cohesion and sub-groupings; and a brief introduction to statistical models for social networks. The afternoon sessions will guide the participant through a hands-on tutorial using the R software platform. A variety of data examples will be used from multiple substantive areas.
This workshop is led by Dr. Ryan Acton, with extensive research experience in social network analysis. More information on Dr. Acton is here:http://www.umass.edu/sociol/faculty_staff/acton.html
Examples of social network analysis methodology in studies of forest landowners:
- Knoot, T.G., and M. Richenbach. 2011. Best management practices and timber harvesting: the role of social networks in shaping landowner decisions. Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research, 26:2, 171-182.
- Korhonen, K., T. Hujala, and M. Kurttila. 2012. Reaching forest owners through their social networks in timber sales. Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research, 27:1, 88-99.
- Richenbach, M. 2009. Serving members and reaching others: The performance and social networks of a landowner cooperative. Forest Policy and Economics 11 (2009) 593-599.
View an extraordinary video on the importance of social networks:
