Social Networks and Digital Lives
SOU44022/SOU44024 Social Networks and Digital Lives
Module Content/Outline:
We have become used to thinking and talking about social networks in relation to social media and digital networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, but the concept of social network has a much longer lineage in Sociology and is important for understanding both digital and non-digital social processes. A key insight of early sociology was that social change in the form of urbanisation and industrialisation were changing both the quantity and quality of relationships that people formed with other members of their society and that this could have important consequences for both the individual and the society overall. In fact, the insight that social explanation needs to take into account the ‘relational structures’ of societies and not just the characteristics of individuals became a defining characteristic of modern sociology. In this module, we first consider social networks as a form of social structure and their relationship to individual agency before defining and operationalising network concepts in empirical research. Week by week, the module then examines the role of social networks in key debates in sociology such as whether we have seen a decline in community in developed nations, the role of social networks in elite power and the dynamics of social protest. We assess whether social networks in digital space are different from face to face contact and if so, the implications of this.
Learning Objectives:
Students successfully completing the module will be able to:
- Understand the role of structural explanation in the social sciences and social networks as a specific instance of this.
- Know the meaning and empirical measurement of the network concepts of density, centrality, clique and cluster.
- Understand the relationship between social network analysis and core debates within sociology around social cohesion, cooperation, community and individual identity.
- Understand the role of social networks in the maintenance and breakdown of social norms and the implications of this for social change.
- Be able to explain and apply dynamic social network processes in small world, diffusion and tipping models.
Lectures & Tutorials/ Contact hours:
One lecture and one tutorial per week.
Workload: Lectures: 22 hrs; Tutorials: 22 hrs; Exams/assignments: 22 hrs; Self-study: 284 hrs. Total: 350 hours.
Recommended texts/ Key Reading:
- Students will be expected to have read the articles and book chapters listed under ‘readings’. Obviously, the list of recommended readings is not comprehensive and you are free, indeed encouraged, to read beyond the reading list. There is no textbook for the module but you may want to look at the following which are excellent, accessible introductions to social network analysis:
- Watts, D.J (2004) Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age, Vintage Books, London.
- Christakis, N. (2011) Connected: The Amazing Power of Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, Harper Press, London.