[lit-ideas] Fwd: Tips and Tricks from working through the Pajek manual, No.2 (Three Approaches to Analysis)

From: John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
To: anthrodesign@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Lit-Ideas <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2011 11:41:11 -0400
If you have ever wondered how I spend my copious spare time......


John

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John McCreery <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, Jul 1, 2011 at 11:25 AM
Subject: Tips and Tricks from working through the Pajek manual, No.2 (Three
Approaches to Analysis)
To: "SOCNET@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <SOCNET@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, pajek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


First, a word of thanks to those who have responded to the previous posts in
this series. Your feedback has been most welcome. It has also led me to
think a bit more, in big picture terms, about what I am trying to do with my
own research. Thus, the following.

----------------
There are, it seems to me, three distinct approaches to social network
analysis.


  1. The Mathematicians
  2. The Social Scientists
  3. The Anthropologists and HIstorians

The mathematicians, who now include physicists and computer scientists,
develop the algorithms and complex modeling techniques on which we all
depend. For the rest of us, the critical question is not so much how do they
work as what do they do for us?

The social scientists are driven by a vision in which interactions between
network vertices result in network parameters that can then be treated as
independent variables in causal analysis. Sampling and statistical inference
are critical issues here.

What, then, of the anthropologists and historians? My prototype is a
presentation by Dr. Lothar Krempel and a group of German historians I heard
at my first Sunbelt conference at St. Pete Beach, Florida, in 2008. The
problem was to map the social networks involved in the correspondence
involved in the Newton-Leibniz controversy over who had invented the
calculus. The focus of the presentation was neither a new algorithm nor an
attempt at causal explanation. Here SNA was used to enrich our understanding
of an already heavily studied bit of intellectual history.

I was struck by this presentation because my own project is an experiment in
using SNA in a similar way, to trace the history and enrich understanding of
the creators who are members of teams whose ads have won awards in one of
Japan's major advertising contests. As someone who has worked in and around
the interesting for nearly three decades and knows many of these people
personally, I bring an ethnographic perspective to the project. I am also
working in a heavily documented field; books by and about Japanese creators,
a lively and active trade press that has published hundreds of pages each
month for, in some cases, more than a half century, a wealth of government
and other statistics—the historical context is there for the reading. It
just takes time. What SNA brings to the table are tools that let me quickly
and persuasively demonstrate connections among, just in my current database,
among over 4000 winning ads and over 8000 creators who were members of the
teams that created them.

My preferred tool is Pajek.* Exploratory Social Network Analysis with
Pajek*gave this newbie to the field a quick and effective introduction
to the
basic concepts of SNA, along with instruction on how to use the software. I
have nothing against other packages; just don't have the time, energy, or
compelling motivation to switch to something else with another learning
curve.

When I think of where I am with Pajek now, I recall the piano lessons that I
took as a child. I have learned my scales and a few basic chords and am now
beginning to explore new techniques. I do not aspire to be a composer
(Mathematician). Nor do I want to confine myself to a particular modernist
style (Social Science). But a certain level of competence, a bit of
improvisation, adding a new twist to my understanding of an industry in
which I have spent a large part of my life. That seems doable.

John

-- 
John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
Tel. +81-45-314-9324
jlm@xxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.wordworks.jp/



-- 
John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
Tel. +81-45-314-9324
jlm@xxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.wordworks.jp/
[lit-ideas] Fwd: Tips and Tricks from working through the Pajek manual, No.2 (Three Approaches to Analysis)

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