UK LINKS Research Published in SCIENCE
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LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 12, 2009) – The prestigious SCIENCE journal
tomorrow will publish an extensive article on social network analysis co-authored by four
management professors in the University of Kentucky's Gatton
College of Business and Economics.
Lead author Steve Borgatti, Chellgren Endowed Chair, and the others, review theories of network analysis in the social sciences. They then explore its potential links and impact on the physical sciences.
A distinctive idea at the heart of social network research is that relationships between and among people can determine how they think and act, affecting both individuals and organizations. In the social sciences, such areas as power bases, work flow, sales opportunities, and job satisfaction can be tied into network theories.
Borgatti explains, "In the physical sciences, researchers are examining the basic characteristics of networks in search of universal laws that apply across the board to all kinds of network phenomena. Similarly, as in the study of isomers in chemistry, a fundamental axiom in the social sciences is that the structure of the network, the way in which people are connected, matters."
Borgatti's co-authors are Ajay Mehra, associate professor; Daniel Brass, J. Henning Hilliard Endowed Chair; and Joe Labianca, Gatton Endowed Associate Professor. All are members of Gatton's LINKS, the International Center for the Study of Social Networks in Business. Brass is director of the world-class center that hosts the international Intra-Organizational Networks (ION) Conference.
The article by Borgatti and his colleagues hopes to forge more links between the social and physical sciences.
"From a social scientist's point of view, network research in the physical sciences can seem alarmingly simple and coarse-grained," say the authors. "And, no doubt, from a physical scientist's point of view, network research in the social sciences must appear oddly mired in the minute and particular, using tiny data sets and treating every context as different."
The authors conclude, "There are many areas where we can each take lessons from the other."
Lead author Steve Borgatti, Chellgren Endowed Chair, and the others, review theories of network analysis in the social sciences. They then explore its potential links and impact on the physical sciences.
A distinctive idea at the heart of social network research is that relationships between and among people can determine how they think and act, affecting both individuals and organizations. In the social sciences, such areas as power bases, work flow, sales opportunities, and job satisfaction can be tied into network theories.
Borgatti explains, "In the physical sciences, researchers are examining the basic characteristics of networks in search of universal laws that apply across the board to all kinds of network phenomena. Similarly, as in the study of isomers in chemistry, a fundamental axiom in the social sciences is that the structure of the network, the way in which people are connected, matters."
Borgatti's co-authors are Ajay Mehra, associate professor; Daniel Brass, J. Henning Hilliard Endowed Chair; and Joe Labianca, Gatton Endowed Associate Professor. All are members of Gatton's LINKS, the International Center for the Study of Social Networks in Business. Brass is director of the world-class center that hosts the international Intra-Organizational Networks (ION) Conference.
The article by Borgatti and his colleagues hopes to forge more links between the social and physical sciences.
"From a social scientist's point of view, network research in the physical sciences can seem alarmingly simple and coarse-grained," say the authors. "And, no doubt, from a physical scientist's point of view, network research in the social sciences must appear oddly mired in the minute and particular, using tiny data sets and treating every context as different."
The authors conclude, "There are many areas where we can each take lessons from the other."