Presentations
2011 – XXXI INSNA Sunbelt Conference Presentations
(St. Petersburg, USA - February 2011)
A New Measure of Structural Holes for Dynamic and Adaptive Networks – Poong Oh
Relational Carrying Capacity – Peter Monge & Drew Margolin
2010 – XXX INSNA Sunbelt Conference Presentations
(Riva del Garda, Italy – July 2010)
A Union Divided: Polarization in the Screen Actors Guild – Nina O’Brien
Presentation (PDF file)
Collective Action in Virtual Organizations, Networks of Collaboration in an Online Scientific Community – Nina O’Brien, Lauren Frank, Jessica Gould, Courtney Schultz, Matthew Weber, Peter Monge
Presentation (PDF file)
Ecological Dynamics of Discourse in Scientific Communities: Co-evolution of Conceptual and Social Networks – Drew Margolin
Presentation (PDF file)
Examining Online Organizations with Longitudinal Network Data from the World Wide Web - Matthew Weber, Peter Monge
Presentation (PDF file)
Predictors & Effects of Multiplexity in an Interorganizational Network – Amanda M. Beacom, Lauren B. Frank, Jonathan Nomachi, & Lark Galloway-Gilliam
Presentation (PDF file)
Team Assembly and Scientific Collaboration on NanoHub – Drew Margolin, Katherine Ognyanova, Cuihua Shen, Meikuan Huang, Yun Huang, Noshir Contractor
Presentation (PDF file)
The Importance of Place in Collaborative Inter-Organizational Networks – Lauren B. Frank, Amanda M. Beacom, Jonathan Nomachi, Lark Galloway-Gilliam
Presentation (PDF file)
2009 – XXIX INSNA Sunbelt Conference Presentations
(San Diego, USA – March 2009)
Lending Practices Among Rural Ecuadorian Women – Lauren B. Frank, Peter R. Monge, Andrea M. Durham, Joyee S. Chatterjee
Lending has increasingly become a tool for community empowerment. This study is a network analysis of informal lending, working, and kinship among 106 women living in Ecuador. The lending relation is positively associated with the working and kinship relations. Lending shows reciprocity such that ties often exist within exchange relationships. Wealthier people are more often the recipients of lending ties. Multiplex ties suggest the importance of examining lending as more than an economic transaction. This paper examines the use of social network analysis for understanding informal lending relations within community settings and as a planning tool for community-based interventions.
Presentation (PDF file)
The Impact of Disruptive Environmental Events on NGO Networks of Collaboration – Jessica Gould
This paper examines the evolution and change in networks of collaboration among non-governmental organizations in the Children’s Rights sector. While a great deal of research has examined the factors influencing the formation of collaborative networks and the benefits that organizations may derive from these relationships, the ways in which they are impacted by disruptive environmental events has been largely overlooked. Furthermore, extant examinations of disruptive events have largely focused on the individual organization as the unit of analysis, overlooking effects at the level of the organizational population. In an effort to address these oversights, the present paper provides a longitudinal analysis of the impact of one positive disruptive event, the passage of the United Nations Convention on the Right of the Child (CRC), on networks of collaboration among members of the population of Children’s Rights non-governmental organizations. It is suggested that the ratification of the CRC is associated with an increase in the density of ties among members of this population. Furthermore, it is predicted that following the ratification of the treaty, organizations will be linked to a more diverse set of partners as assessed by a variety of organizational attributes. Data were drawn from the Union of International Associates annual yearbooks.
The Epistemological Basis of Stable Links – Drew Margolin
In the study of communication networks it is common to analyze enduring links between nodes, such as people or organizations, that co-evolve. These nodes not only change over time, they adapt in response to one another. This research argues that to maintain such links, nodes must simultaneously adapt methods for estimating the likely behavior, including the likely adaptations, of their alters. Thus, stable network links are indicators that nodes possess rationales or “theories” for predicting, detecting and constraining the adaptive changes of other nodes. It follows that flows of information that modify nodes’ abilities to develop and test these theories will impact the stability of network links. When theory building is facilitated, networks will grow. Where theory building and testing are difficult, links will be unstable. This research relies on evolutionary epistemology (Campbell, 1974; Maturana & Varela, 1980; Popper, 1972) as its theoretical approach. It is argued that inductive inference is insufficient for maintaining stable links and thus networks stability is not improved by increasing the raw availability of data. Nodes require information that facilitates hypotheses of universal properties from which they can deduce techniques for testing and corroborating their relationships.
Presentation (PDF file)
Interorganizational Network Evolution in the ICT for Development Community – Seungyoon Lee, Peter Monge
This study examines longitudinal changes in the networks of organizations in the field of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Development. The study employs a multi- and cross-level analysis, examining the overall structure at the global level and the networking patterns among different organizational populations and regions at the sub-group level. Data were collected from the records of interorganizational collaboration activities between 1987 and 2008, which aimed to extend the use of ICTs in underdeveloped regions. A total of 578 unique organizations were included, representing multiple populations including intergovernmental, governmental, non-governmental, and for-profit organizations around the world. MultiNet blockmodeling techniques were used to estimate inter- and intra-subgroup parameters. The results show evidence for an overall shift towards decentralization as well as an increase of within-region and within-population ties over time. In addition, the study examines the bridging role of civil society actors and nontraditional donors as an alternative to the global network centered around nation states. Implications for cross-level network analysis are discussed in which sub-group network dynamics led by homophily, proximity, and brokerage influence the global structure characterized by decentralization and small world properties. Practical implications relate to sustainable partnerships in the ICT for Development initiatives, with emphasis on the role of civil society and local stakeholders.
2008 – XXVIII INSNA Sunbelt Conference Presentations
(St. Pete’s Beach, March 2008)
The Structural Evolution of Organizational Communities: How Variation, Selection, and Retention Processes Operate in NGO Networks – Peter Monge, Janet Fulk, Joyee Chatterjee, Bettina Heiss, Seungyoon Lee, Drew Margolin, Cuihua Shen, Kim Stephens, Matthew Weber
Ego Networks as Interactors: A New Level of Analysis in Network Evolution – Drew Margolin, Bettina Heiss
Bulls vs. Bears Online: Diffusion of interpretation through an argument network – Drew Margolin – Poster (PDF file)
Transactional Versus Interactive Knowledge Networks: A Comparison of Interorganizational Network Topologies in Biotechnology – Seungyoon Lee, Bettina Heiss, Lu Tang
Coupled Landscapes in the Context of Competition: An Expansion and Exploration of the NK[C] Model to the Community Level – Kim Stephens, Cuihua Shen
Brokerage in Online News Networks – Matthew Weber, Peter Monge
The Network Structure of Open Source Software (OSS) Community – Cuihua Shen, Peter Monge
2007 – XXVII INSNA Sunbelt Conference Presentations
(Corfu, Greece, May, 2007)
The structural evolution of organizational communities: How variation, selection, and retention processes operate in NGO networks – Peter Monge, Janet Fulk, Joyee Chatterjee, Bettina Heiss, Seungyoon Lee, Drew Margolin, Cuihua Shen, Kim Stephens, Matthew Weber
The Network Structure of the Open Source Software Community – Cuihua Shen, Peter Monge
Brokerage in Online News Networks – Matthew Weber, Peter Monge
Coupled Landscapes in the Context of Competition: An Expansion and Exploration of the NK[C] Model to the Community Level – Kim Stephens, Cuihua Shen
Transactional Versus Interactive Knowledge Networks: A Comparison of Interorganizational Network Topologies in Biotechnology. – Seungyoon Lee, Bettina Heiss, & Lu Tang
Invited Lectures
A diverse set of scholars from the social and physical sciences met at the USC Annenberg Center on September 15th and 16th for a Workshop on Network Theory. While discussing the role of networks in their disparate fields (anthropology, communication, computer science, neuroscience, organization science, sociology, etc) the primary focus of the workshop was to pursue the development of a transdisciplinary social network theory.
Below are short summaries of the lectures presented at the workshop.
Second-Hand Brokerage
Ron Burt, University of Chicago
Theorizing Social Processes in Multidimensional Networks
Noshir Contractor, University of Illinois
For Historical Network Analysis
David Stark, Columbia University
Globalization as a Networks Network
Manuel Castells, University of Southern California
Computer, Neural and Social Networks
Jerry Feldman, University of California, Berkeley
What are Brain Networks Good For?
Antonio Damasio, University of Southern California
The Global Movement for Global Justice: A Network for Social Change
Jeffrey Juris, Arizona State University
Network Theory: Multitheoretical or Unified? If Unified, Evolutionary, If Not, What?
Peter Monge, University of Southern California
Keynote Address: The Century of the Network
Fritjof Capra, University of California, Berkeley
