Network Concepts, Measures, and the Multitheoretical, Multilevel Analytic Framework
This chapter begins with an overview of network analysis concepts and measures. Those readers who are new to the area, or who are familiar with the social theories described in this book but not with network analysis itself, should find a careful reading of the first section of this chapter to be essential in understanding the remainder of the chapter and book. Network analysis has become a fairly technical topic, and there are a number of concepts, measures, and analytic strategies that require careful explication. This section of the chapter should provide sufficient background in network analysis to enable an informed reading of the network literature. We hasten to emphasize, however, that it is only a brief introduction. Hence, like all other introductory materials, an attempt is made to trade-off conceptual rigor with simplicity. An extensive literature exists on network analysis, including several fine texts and a number of excellent review chapters. Those who wish to explore further the network analysis material presented in the first third of this chapter should consult the sources in the references that we have identified under “Relations in a World of Attributes.” Those who are more familiar with network analysis will find the first section of this chapter less important. A quick skim should provide ample insight into our selection and use of concepts and definitions. The second section introduces the MTML framework. It shows how various network properties at different levels of analysis can represent the generative mechanisms from different social theories. It also shows how combining theories can provide broader explanations of emergent networks than each theory can alone. As a part of that framework we introduce the statistical ideas pertaining to realizations of a graph and discuss p* analytic strategies and the PSPAR computer program that can be used to analyze relevant data. This section concludes with an extended presentation of the MTML model, which broadly classifies variables into endogenous and exogenous factors, each with multiple levels. Examples are provided for each of the ten classes of hypotheses generated by this framework.