A review of references in actor network theory, a major theoretical approach in the sociology of science and technology. Editors: Olaf Boettger and John Law (Centre for Social Theory and Technology, Keele University, UK).
An Event Structure Analysis page with an on-line Java program, and an Affect Control Theory page offering a number of programs and datasets.
An association dedicated to promoting the experimental, theoretical, and applied analysis of behavior.
Four Degrees of Separation
In: Cornell University Library, Social and In formation Networks
The results of the first world-scale social-network graph-distance computations, using the entire Facebook network of active users (approx 721 million users, approx 69 billion friendship links). The average distance they observe is 4.74, corresponding to 3.74 intermediaries or “degrees of separation”. This shows that the world is even smaller than expected.
Dedicated to forwarding the science of contingent behaviorrelations as developed and championed by B.F. Skinner.
The major function of this foundation is to preserve and maintain Skinner's works and other behavioral classics that should be available to all students.
Burke is known for his research on identity theory and his innovative work with computer simulations of social behavior.
Information about group processes research, researchers & publications. Here you can also read the electronic journal: Current Research in Social Psychology. Edited by: Michael J. Lovagliva.
The mission of the Center is to create learning partnerships which support the design, implementation, and development of collaborative work systems, thereby maximizing individual & organizational effectiveness. The site contains information on the vision and activities of the center, free articles & literatuure, a recommended readings list, and a list of links.
- [1998] The Golden Age of Macro-Historical Sociology
- [2000] Interview with Randall Collins
By Alair Maclean and James Yocom.
Collins emphasizes that the real unit of analysis is the situation, and situations have their dynamics and individuals get constructed out of those situations. And he explains his interest in the sociology of the emotions, particularly emotions as things which are shared among people. - [2004] Interaction Ritual Chains
- [2005] The Sociology of Almost Everything
Four Questions to Randall Collins about Interaction Ritual Chains
In: Canadian Journal of Sociology Online January-February 2005.
Randall Collins replies to questions raised by Peter Baehr. - [2011]
Interaction Rituals and the New Electronic Media
In: The Sociological Eye, 25.01.2011. - The Sociological Eye
The personal blog of Collins. “The sociological eye holds up a periscope above the tides of political and intellectual partisanship, spying out the patterns of social life in every direction.” - Randall_Collins - Wikipedia
A computer program which facilitates the collection of sociometric data in the classroom. It employs sociograms, scatter charts, and bar graphics to depict the social climate of a classroom.
Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis
Deux traditions d’analyse des reseaux sociaux
In: Networks, 115: 1883-212.
Group Dynamics
How do groups (and individuals) cope with their failures? What basic human needs do we satify by joining together with others? How does leadership within a group emerge? These and other questions are discussed in some clearly written documents.
A Kiss is Just a Kiss — The Impossibility of Sexual Communication
A chapter from his book “The Meaning of Love”.
His argument is not that communication about or about feelings is impossible, but that communication by means of sex is impossible.
Studying Online Social Networks
Symbolic Interactionism as defined by Herbert Blumer
Blumer was one of the premier symbolic interactionists.
A summary of many books on teams by IBM Corp. Compiled by Bob Willard.The purpose of the site is to lead those interested in leadership development to on-line resources. The material is organizaed by topics including teamwork, learning organizatyions, and systems thinking.
A scientific and professional organization focused on stimulating and supporting the scientific study of personal and social relationships. Members of IARR come from around the globe and various disciplines. The majority of members are affiliated with academic institutions, however many work in industry and/or private practice.
Information on INSN, its journal, and related resources. Includes portion of recent issues of "Connnections" and the journals "Social Networks" and "Journal of Social Stucture", the professional organization for social network researchers. A dailey updated page, that will provides access to network analysis software and to datasets contributed by network researchers.
A professional organization interested in all aspects of personal relationships. Its goal is to stimulate and support scholarship and research on personal relationships, improve communication between researchers around the world engaged in the scientific study of personal relationships, and establish the field of personal relationships within the scholarly community.
A devision of the National Communication Association (NCA).
Provides information on conferences, symposia and proceedings, topic specialty resources, personal resources, syllabi, electronic journals and more. Presented by the Department of Communication of the University of Colorado at Boulder (USA).
Sociometry is one of the methods of socio-psychology developed by professional psychiatrist Jacob Levi Moreno (USA) to estimate the interpersonal emotive relationships within a group (1934). The results of the sociometric study of a community can help to spot informal leaders, rank employees, identify those who are socially isolated. Sociometric methods enable one to express intragroup relations in terms of numbers, graphs and text and thereby obtain valuable information on the state of subjective psychological relationships in a group.
NetAge helps people work together across boundaries of space, time and organizations using technology. The site provides information about 21st century organizations, virtual teams, teamnets, and networks.
The Network gallery documents work in progress in efforts to visualize social structures. The aim is to develop experience how automatic procedures can be combined with aesthetics to ease insight into usually complex phenomena. There are two tracks which visitors can follow. As the visualizations stem from varying subject domains you may choose to follow the subject track, which organizes the presentation around the thematic aspects of the datasets. If your interest is more formal, you may wish to enter the technical laboratory. There they demonstrate methodological approaches for handling empirical data. This will often move quickly through various substantive domains where similar technical problems arise.
Journal of the International Society for the Study of Personal Relationships(ISSPR). PR (first published in 1994), is an international, interdisciplinary journal which has as its aim the promotion of scholarship in the field of personal relationships throughout a broad range of disciplines & methodologies. The subject matter of PR includes such topics as love, jealousy, conflict, intimacy, social support, loneliness, socialization, attachment and bonding, communication, kinship, and sexuality. They suggest that we can progress in understanding relationships, and that the separate funds of knowledge accumulated by each research style must be banked in the same vault and made readily available. That's right, but you'll have to pay (subscribe) to get access to this knowledge. Editor: Patricia Noller (University of Queensland).
A Spanish contribution to social network analysis.
A research center at the University of Michigan. RCGD's goal is to advance the understanding of human behavior in a societal context. Current research includes studies concerned with group decision making and social judgment; conformity and independence; violence and aggression, scholastic achievement, delinquency, and alternative schools; social relationships and social support within African American communities, the study of aging in a variety of social contexts, studies focusing on the effects of educational television, computers, and other novel technology in classrooms; stereotyping and social judgment, culture and cognition, cognitive anthropology; human mating strategies and conflict between the sexes, and studies on the mental representation of social categories with a focus on the development of notions of race in young children.
Trust breaks down in electronci contexts but can be repaired by some initial face-to-face contact
Trust is the prerequisite for success when a collaborative task involves risk of individualistic or deceitful behaviors of others. Can trust emerge in electronic contexts? This issue is explored in an experiment in which trust emergence is measured in both face-to-face and electronic contexts. In this experiment trust is revealed by the degree of cooperation the group is able to reach in solving a social dilemma, i.e. a situation in which advantages for individualistic behavior make group cooperation highly vulnerable. The experiment consists of two stages. The first stage analyzes the effects of F-t-F and electronic communication on trust Trust succeeds only with F-t-F communication. The second stage investigates whether a pre-meeting F-t-F can promote trust in electronic contexts- Results are positive. Examination of how people converse in these two contexts sheds some light on the effects of technical characteristics and social circumstances on the emergence of trust.
Simulating Symbolic Interaction [pdf]
In: Journal of Mathematical Sociology, 20 (1995): 271-87.
A description of a program for simulating symbolic interaction. The program processes verbal inputs using empirically-based equations and a cybernetic theoretical model, while making reference to dictionaries of culture measurements. Results are verbal outputs suggesting what behaviors, emotions, attributions, and labelings will occur in the given situation.
Social Network Analysis: A Handbook
Self Directed Work Teams are making an impact in organizations throughout the world. Why are leading-edge organizations switching from the traditional management 'boss-worker' model to a team 'collaborative' model? The site contains an extensive list of links to other sites. It also inlcudes a bibliography and links to other bibliographies on the www.
A journal for the study of social networks. It is an inter-disciplinary and international quarterly that provides a common forum for representatives of anthropology, sociology, history, social psychology, political science, human geography, biology, economics, communications science and other disciplines who share an interest in the structure of social relations and associations. The journal publishes theoretical, methodological and substantive papers. Articles published in the journal are all concerned with questions about the structure —or patterning— of the linkages that connect social actors. It is edited by P. Doreian & M. Everett and published by Elsevier Science B.V.
A social science professional organization of scholars interested in qualitative, especially interactionist, research. Provides a set of resources for qualitative researchers.
A short explanation of the sociometric method to estimate the interpersonal emotive relationships within a group. It is presented by the makers of a commercial program called Sociometry Plus.
Home page of David Heise (Indiana University's Department of Sociology), the originator of Affect Control Theory. His methodological research has proceeded from issues in quantitative modeling to methodological problems in qualitative research. His social psychological research focuses on the affective and logical foundations of social interaction. His site contains recent or forthcoming papers. You can download software for the analysis of social interaction.
A collection of more than 2,500 Western signs, arranged into over 50 groups according to their graphic characteristics. Includes the symbols' histories, uses, and meanings. The signs range from ideograms carved in mammoth teeth by Cro-Magnon men, to hobo signs and subway graffiti.
