Social Network Analysis

Generally defined, Social Network Analysis (SNA) is the study of the structure of interaction as it occurs between persons and / or other social units. The goal of most SNA is to understand how these configurations of relationships relate to some phenomenon of interest, such as actor behaviours or attitudes. SNA uses mathematical tools like statistics, network theory, graph theory, or game theory.

Within POLISES, we use SNA mainly in combination with agent-based models (e.g. in the SEEMI project). We have compiled a review on the combination of the two methods:

Will, M., Groeneveld, J., Frank, K., Müller, B. (2020). Combining social network analysis and agent-based modelling to explore dynamics of human interaction: A review. Socio-Environmental Systems Modelling 2, art. 16325. doi.