cwheat@mit: networks & organization - readings 
Home
Research
Teaching
15.900
15.992
Calendar
Readings
Handouts
Software
Demos
15.992 @ Stellar
Curriculum Vitae
Software & Data Sets
Economic Sociology Seminar
Sociology @ MIT
Contact
Introduction
Week 1
February 2nd
Introduction
Rushin, Steve. How Friends Make You Fat. Time Magazine - August 2, 2007.
Module One
Week 2
February 9th
Dyads in Networks: Symmetry & Assymetry

Emerson, Richard. 1961. Power-Dependence Relations. American Sociological Review 27(1): 31-40.

Cook, Karen S., Emerson, Richard M. and Mary R. Gillmore. 1983. The Distribution of Power in Exchange Networks: Theory and Experimental Results. American Journal of Sociology 89(2): 275-305

Manski, Charles F. 1993. Identification of Endogenous Social Effects: The Reflection Problem. Review of Economics Studies 60(3): 531-542.

McPherson, Miller, Smith-Lovin, Lynn, and James M. Cook. 2001. Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social Networks. Annual Review of Sociology 27: 415-444.

Casciaro, Tiziana and Mikolaj Jan Piskorski. 2005. Power Imbalance, Mutual Dependence, and Constraint Absorption: A Closer Look at Resource Dependence Theory. Administrative Science Quarterly 50(2): 167-199.

Christakis, Nicholas A. and James H. Fowler. 2007. The Spread of Obesity in a Large Social Network over 32 Years. New England Journal of Medicine 357(4): 370-379.


Optional reading:

Waserman & Faust: 505-555.

Week 3
February 23rd
Triads: Building Blocks of Group Structure

Holland, Paul W. and Samuel Leinhardt. 1976. Local Structure in Social Networks. Sociological Methodology 7: 1-45.

Burt, Ronald S. 1987. Social Contagion and Innovation: Cohesion Versus Structural Equivalence. American Journal of Sociology 92(6): 1287-1355.

Gould, Roger V. and Roberto M. Fernandez. 1989. Structures of Mediation: A Formal Approach to Brokerage in Transaction Networks. Sociological Methodology 19: 89-126.

Krackhardt, David. 1999. The Ties that Torture: Simmelian Tie Analysis in Organizations. Research in the Sociology of Organizations 16: 183-210.

Obstfeld, David. 2005. Social Networks, the Tertius Iungens Orientation, and Involvement in Innovation. Administrative Science Quarterly 50(1): 100-130.


Optional reading:

Waserman & Faust: 556-602.

Frank, Kenneth A. and Jeffrey Y. Yasumoto. 1998. Linking Action to Social Structure Within a System: Social Capital Within and Between Subgroups. American Journal of Sociology 104(3): 642-686.

Week 4
March 2nd
Complete Networks: Non-Local Structure

Travers, Jeffrey and Stanley Milgram. 1969. An Experimental Study of the Small World Problem. Sociometry 32(4): 425-443.

Bonacich, Phillip. 1987. Power and Centrality: A Family of Measures. American Journal of Sociology 92(5): 1170-1182.

Robins, Garry, Pattison, Philippa, and Jodie Woolcock. 2005. Small and Other Worlds: Global Network Structures from Local Processes American Journal of Sociology 110(4): 894-936.

Uzzi, Brian and Jarrett Spiro. 2005. Collaboration and Creativity: The Small World Problem. American Journal of Sociology 111(2): 447-504.

Centola, Damon and Michael W. Macy. 2007. Complex Contagion and the Weakness of Long Ties. American Journal of Sociology 111(3):702-734.

Week 5
March 9th
Networks and Role Structures

White, Harrison C., Boorman, Scott A. and Ronald L. Breiger. 1976. Social Structure from Multiple Networks. I. Blockmodels of Roles and Positions. American Journal of Sociology 81(4): 730-780.

Winship, Christopher and Michael Mandel. 1983. Roles and Positions: A Critique and Extension of the Blockmodeling Approach. Sociological Methodology 14: 314-344.

Gerlach, Michael L. 1992. The Japanese Corporate Network: A Blockmodel Analysis. Administrative Science Quarterly 37(1): 105-139.

Padgett, J. F. and C. K. Ansell. 1993. Robust Action and the Rise of the Medici, 1400-1434. American Journal of Sociology 98(6): 1259-1319.

Borgatti, S. P. and M. G. Everett. 1993. Two Algorithms for Computing Regular Equivalence. Social Networks 15: 361-376.


Optional reading:

Boorman, Scott A. and Harrison C. White. 1976. Social Structure from Multiple Networks. II. Role Structures. American Journal of Sociology 81(6): 1384-1446.

Boyd, John P. 2002. Finding and Testing Regular Equivalence. Social Networks 24(4): 315-331.

Week 6
March 16th
Network Dynamics

Wasserman, Stanley. 1980. Analyzing Social Networks As Stochastic Processes. Journal of the American Statistical Association 75(370): 280-294.

Galaskiewicz, Joseph and Stanley Wasserman. 1981. A Dynamic Study of Change in a Regional Corporate Network. American Sociological Review 46(4): 475-484.

Hummon, Norman P. 2000. Utility and Dynamic Social Networks. Social Networks 22(3): 221-249.

Snijders, Tom A. B. 2001. The Statistical Evaluation of Social Network Dynamics. Sociological Methodology 31: 361-395.

Jackson, Matthew O. and Allison Watts. 2002. The Evolution of Social and Economic Networks. Journal of Economic Theory 106(2): 265-295.

Kossinets, Gueorgi and Duncan J. Watts. 2006. Empirical Analysis of an Evolving Social Network. Science 311(5757): 88-90.


Optional reading:

Burt, Ronald S. 1988. The Stability of American Markets. American Journal of Sociology 94(2): 356-395.

Week 7
March 30th
Cognitive Networks

Bernard, H. Russell, Killworth, Peter, Kronenfeld, David, and Lee Sailer. 1984. The Problem of Informant Accuracy: The Validity of Retrospective Data. Annual Review of Anthropology 13: 495-517.

Krackhardt, David. 1987. Cognitive Social Structures Social Networks 9: 109-134.

Freeman, Linton, Romney, A. Kimball, and Sue C. Freeman. 1987. Cognitive Structure and Informant Accuracy. American Anthropologist 89(2): 310-325.

Freeman, Linton. 1992. Filling in the Blanks: A Theory of Cognitive Categories and the Structure of Social Affiliation. Social Psychology Quarterly 55(2): 118-127.

Casciaro, Tiziana. 1998. Seeing Things Clearly: Social Structure, Personality and Accuracy in Social Network Perception. Social Networks 20: 331-351.

Week 8
April 6th
Inference and Network Structure

Holland, Paul W. and Samuel Leinhardt. 1981. An Exponential Family of Probability Distributions for Directed Graphs. Journal of the American Statistical Association 76(373): 33-50.

Wang, Yuchung J. and George Y. Wong. 1987. Stochastic Blockmodels for Directed Graphs. Journal of the American Statistical Association 82(397): 8-19.

van den Bulte, Christophe and Rudy K. Moenaert. 1998. The Effects of R&D Team Co-Location on Communication Patterns among R&D, Marketing, and Manufacturing. Management Science 44(11, Part 2 of 2): S1-S18.

Anderson, Carolyn J., Wasserman, Stanley and Bradley Crouch. 1999. A p* primer: Logit Models for social networks. Social Networks 21(1): 37-66.

Lazega, Emmanuel and Philippa E. Pattison. 1999. Multiplexity, Generalized Exchange and Cooperation in Organizations: A Case Study. Social Networks 21(1): 67-90.


Optional reading:

Galaskiewicz, Joseph, Wasserman, Stanley, Rauschenbach, Barbara, Bielefeld, Wolfgang, and Patti Mullaney. 1985. The Influence of Corporate Power, Social Status, and Market Position on Corporate Interlocks in a Regional Network. Social Forces, 64(2): 403-431.

Wheat, Christopher O. 2007. Algorithmic Complexity and Model Selection in Social Networks. Working paper.

Module Two
Week 9
April 13th
Networks and Labor Markets

Rees, Albert. 1966. Information Networks in Labor Markets. American Economic Review 56(1/2): 559-566.

Granovetter, Mark S. 1973. The Strength of Weak Ties. American Journal of Sociology 78(6): 1360-1380.

Calvó-Armengol, Antoni and Matthew O. Jackson. 2004. The Effects of Social Networks on Employment and Inequality. American Economic Review 94(3): 426-454.

Fernandez, Roberto M., Castilla, Emilio J., and Paul Moore. 2000. Social Capital at Work: Networks and Employment at a Phone Center. American Journal of Sociology 105(5): 1288-1356.

Smith, Sandra Susan. 2005. "Don't put my name on it": Social Capital Activation and Job-Finding Assistance among the Black Urban Poor. American Journal of Sociology 111(1): 1-57.


Optional reading:

Montgomery, James D. 1991. Social Networks and Labor-Market Outcomes: Toward an Economic Analysis. American Economic Review 81(5): 1408-1418.

Fernandez, Roberto M. and M. Lourdes Sosa. 2005. Gendering the Job: Networks and Recruitment at a Call Center American Journal of Sociology 111(3): 859-904.

Week 10
April 27th
Networks, Performance and Competition

Burt, Ronald S. 1980. Autonomy in a Social Topology. American Journal of Sociology 85(4): 892-925.

Podolny, Joel. 1993. A Status-Based Model of Market Competition. American Journal of Sociology 98(4): 829-872.

Gulati, Ranjay. 1995. Social Structure and Alliance Formation Patterns: A Longitudinal Analysis. Administrative Science Quarterly 40(4): 619.652.

Uzzi, Brian. 1997. Social Structure and Competition in Interfirm Networks: The Paradox of Embeddedness. Administrative Science Quarterly 42(1): 35-67.

Chung, Seungwha (Andy), Singh, Harbir, and Kyungmook Lee. 2000. Complementarity, Status Similarity and Social Capital as Drivers of Alliance Formation. Strategic Management Journal 21(1): 1-22.

Week 11
May 4th
Networks, Technology and Innovation

Coleman, James, Katz, Elihu and Herbert Menzel. 1957. The Diffusion of an Innovation Among Physicians. Sociometry 20(4): 253-270.

Podolny, Joel M., Stuart, Toby E. and Michael T. Hannan. 1996. Networks, Knowledge, and Niches: Competition in the Worldwide Semiconductor Industry, 1984-1991. American Journal of Sociology 102(3): 659-689.

Powell, Walter W., Koput, Kenneth W., and Laurel Smith-Doerr. 1996. Interorganizational Collaboration and the Locus of Innovation: Networks of Learning in Biotechnology. Administrative Science Quarterly 41(1): 116-145.

Ahuja, Gautam. 2000. Collaboration Networks, Structural Holes, and Innovation: A Longitudinal Study Administrative Science Quarterly 45(3): 425-455.

Stuart, Toby E. and Waverly W. Ding. 2006. When Do Scientists Become Entrepreneurs? The Social Structural Antecedents of Commercial Activity in the Academic Life Sciences. American Journal of Sociology 112(1): 97-144.

Conclusions
Week 12
May 11th
Wrap Up
 © 2006-2008 Christopher Wheat