300271 Social Networks and Inequality: An introduction (S) (SoSe 2012)

For almost a century, social scientists of all stripes have studied the complex nature of social networks, the more or less stable constellations of relations and interactions among social entities. The study of inequality, too, has paid close attention to the role of networks in stratification processes. The structure and dynamics of the relations in which individuals are embedded have been consistently shown to be crucial for the production and persistence of different forms of inequality. Who gets the job? Who gets promoted? Who is happy or depressed? Who commits a crime? Which children achieve higher grades? Who gets divorced? Who gets a sexually-transmitted disease? Social networks are in each case a part of the answer.

The goal of this seminar is to introduce students to empirical research, theories and models about social networks and inequality. To do so, and given the variety and breadth of the literature on the subject, the emphasis will be placed on unveiling core processes found across different contexts and phenomena that connect networks to unequal individual and collective outcomes. In other words, the seminar is not just about reviewing empirical studies on job referrals and hiring, obesity and depression, crime and terrorism, marriage and divorce, scientific publications and citations, school achievement, social contagion and innovation, or romantic relationships and sexually-transmitted diseases. It is about looking for patterns and communalities in the social networks surrounding these and other related phenomena relevant for the study of inequality. Are there any regularities in the way individual characteristics and preferences affect the formation, stability and dissolution of social ties? Are individual outcomes similarly constrained or enhanced by the position individuals occupy inside a network? Are they equally affected by the structure of the network? To answer these questions, empirical research, theories and models will be selectively combined and discussed in each session.

Teilnahmevoraussetzungen, notwendige Vorkenntnisse

None. The following are desirable prerequisites, however:
i) Familiarity with stratification research
ii) Interest in network analysis
iii) Interest in quantitative research

Literaturangaben

David B.; Ku, M. C.; Szelényi, S. (Eds.) (2008): Social stratification. Class, race, and gender in sociological perspective. 3rd ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Borgatti,S. P.; Mehra, A.; Brass, D. J.; Labianca, G. (2009): Network Analysis in the Social Sciences. In Science 323 (5916), pp. 892–895.