• Understand, and critically reflect on, network theory
• Be able to use and apply network data
• Be able to evaluate the validity of network data in addressing a research question
• Be able to depict, interpret and analyse both the structure and the role of actors in a network

Networks are everywhere: in the organizations we work in, between family members, on the web or between nations and international organisations.  In recent years, understanding networks has become ever more important. From social media and ‘big data’ to the relations forming our everyday life, social network analysis offers a unique way of understanding society. Only our imagination limits what can be seen as a network: you can identify patterns in global mobility by looking at networks of travelers between airports, find the structure in consumption patterns by looking at networks of products bought by the same consumers, or find elite groups by looking at shared board memberships.

Being able to understand and analyze networks is important in business management, enabling us to find the logics of cultural phenomena and communication, and to identify structures in political institutions.     

The aim of the course is to introduce social network analysis and network theory, and their basic concepts, in a way that can be applied. In other words: we expect you to, at the end of the course, to be able to both understand how social networks can help us understand the world and to be able to perform such an analysis yourself.

We will start the course by introducing what social network analysis is, including network theory. Second, we will look at what network data is and introduce you to the programs able to handle network data. This will include starting to identify the data that you will use for your research project. Finally, we will go through basic concepts in network analysis and apply them in the analysis of your project report.

Our aim is to teach all aspects of network analysis - data collection, network identification, identifying key actors, interpreting and understanding network structure and network plotting - in a hands-on approach, based on your network of interest during classes and exercises. We will provide network data on Danish business and political networks, used in our own research, for interested students.

We will use two main textbooks.

Scott, John. Social Network Analysis : A Handbook. London: Sage, 2000

Wasserman, Stanley, and Katherine Faust. Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications. Cambridge University Press, 1994.