Key Information for the special theme: Homophily in Social Networks

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

Over the last thirty years, in parallel with the global uptake of the world wide web, social network analysis (SNA) has become a significant analytical approach within several disciplines and it currently holds a prominent position in academic discussions across a diverse range of topics. This special theme of <italic>Connections</italic>, the journal of the <italic>International Network for Social Network Analysis</italic>, adds to the rapidly growing body of network research with a focus on exploring the principle of homophily in social networks. It presents 5 studies from a selected number of participants to the symposium “Similarity, Selection and Influence: A Cross-Disciplinary Symposium on Homophily in Social Networks” (7–8 July, 2022, Groningen, the Netherlands). Taken together, the special theme provides an interdisciplinary understanding of homophily in social networks and outlines avenues for future research to keep investigating the subject.
</abstract>

Special Theme: Homophily in Social Networks

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

This paper examines the dissemination of Cartesianism in the 17th century by studying the networks of authors in the field of natural philosophy. Key figures who spread knowledge and innovated the field are identified and contextualized. Furthermore, the network analysis shows how different ways of thinking coexisted within the social networks of early modern natural philosophers. To achieve this methodologically, originally bipartite networks were projected into author-to-author networks that were divided into time slices. Measurements of centrality and assortativity were used to determine prominence and diversity, which were complemented and refined with close reading. The findings reveal not only cliques of geographically connected authors, but also an overall highly connected field. Additionally, assortativity indicates a moderate tendency toward homophily in the authors’ connections to others within the same philosophical tradition. The study furthermore identifies that central authors were predominantly eclectic or Cartesian, suggesting that Cartesianism was driven by such individuals in structurally well-connected positions.
</abstract>

Intelligencers, Cliques, and Stars in the Spread of 17th -Century Cartesianism

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

The development of the “public sphere” and the Enlightenment are closely related to the networks of publishers involved in print culture. In Britain, a key question is whether diversity (in terms of nationality) in publishing increased over time. In this paper, we use large-scale library catalog data and a class of models known as Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) to investigate the extent to which an 18th-century network of publishers in London was homophilous with respect to nationality, and specifically investigate whether those with close publishing connections to Scotland formed a separate group or if they were simply integrated into the London book market. As there is little external information on the majority of publishers, we generate node and edge attributes from the catalog data itself. The results suggest that social processes were deeply involved in the decisions behind copublishing and collaborations and that there is indeed a significant positive effect on tie formation if both nodes are “Scottish” publishers, though this lessens over the century. We find that other important factors in tie formation are edgewise shared partners and similarity in patterns of genres published.
</abstract>

Networks of Influence in Scottish Enlightenment Publishing

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

Most recent academic studies of homophily—the tendency of people to interact with similar others—lean to a sociological critique of digital technologies, rather than revealing fundamentally positive outcomes. A few solid philosophical endeavors have emerged from the fields of philosophy of technology and enactive ethics. This article adopts a sociological perspective to argue that digital social networks can serve as an ethical infrastructure for facilitating effective communication. However, they also face the challenge of organizing the myriad of individual voices present within them, so that the necessary moral conditions to mitigate homophily can be established. From this viewpoint, it is suggested homophily should be viewed not as an individual’s right to expression but as a cultivated echo-moral cultured landscape. Homophily is not an input but an outcome. Homophily does not happen without evaluating reception. A voice without assessment lacks the ethical dimension. By applying the theory of the social construction of reality (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_connections-2019.037_ref_003">Berger &amp; Luckmann, 2008</xref>), homophily can be conceived as the contribution of <italic>significant others</italic>. Most importantly, effective communication can be attained when new secondary institutions organize the input of <italic>significant others</italic> into a meaningful <italic>generalized other</italic> (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_connections-2019.037_ref_021">Mead, 2015</xref>). As a result, I propose that digital technologies allow for ameliorating the moral character of the individual by shifting how one looks at communication: from an individual’s right to a voice into an ordered culture of <italic>voices</italic>, from preserving rights to serving rightly. This perspective could illuminate policymakers to establish right processes to avoid homophily and help individuals and organizations achieve effective means of communication and deliberation.
</abstract>

Homophily vs the Generalized Other

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

This study analyses the frame resonance in the Twitter debate of Gustavo Petro and, especially, of Francia Márquez’s rhetoric during the presidential elections campaign of 2022. I specifically study the potential resonance of the notion of Otherness in tweets attributed to women and to men. I apply several methodological protocols including network analysis and topic modeling. The results are positive on the frame resonance of the campaign and Francia Márquez rhetoric in both groups, showing ideological-political engagement from a semantic view more than a gendered connection. However, semantic relatedness to the particular framing studied here appears to be stronger in women than in men. Addressing Twitter attributes such as mentions and hashtags is similar in both groups.
</abstract>

Framing Otherness on Twitter: gender, elections and networks

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

The integration of digital technology in modern society has led to an increased importance of the analysis of the digital environment in political elections. The concept of echo chambers and their influence on social networks has received significant attention in recent academic investigations. Echo chambers are commonly referred to as the digital bubble where users participate in a conversation mostly with like-minded others, and it is usually related not only to homophily but can also be directly associated with the effects of social media algorithms. This study examines the Twitter interactions during two Spanish regional elections. Data collection has been performed through Twitter Streaming API, which resulted in a total dataset of 5.5 million tweets. The study analyzes how the political communities interact inside and between them. Also, we replicate this analysis by grouping the political communities by two main affinity blocks (left-right) to evaluate if the effects of homophily are even higher under this hypothesis. Finally, the text of the tweets was analyzed to reinforce the community-interaction analysis and to conduct a sentiment analysis of the interactions. The research results indicate that within each political party community, interactions predominantly occur among individuals who hold similar political views, leading to the creation of echo chambers. These echo chambers become even more powerful when parties are unified into political affinity blocks, with over 97% of interactions occurring within each left-right block. This study aims to contribute to the ongoing academic debate by providing relevant data and reinforcing aspects studied by previous researchers.
</abstract>

Exploring Echo Chambers in Twitter during Two Spanish Regional Elections: An Analysis of Community Interactions

AHEAD OF PRINT

Volume 44 (2024): Issue 1 (January 2024)

Volume 43 (2023): Issue 1 (January 2023)

Volume 42 (2022): Issue 1 (January 2022)

Volume 41 (2021): Issue 1 (January 2021)

Volume 40 (2020): Issue 1 (January 2020)

Volume 39 (2019): Issue 1 (January 2019)

Volume 38 (2018): Issue 1 (January 2018)

Volume 37 (2017): Issue 1-2 (January 2017)

Volume 36 (2016): Issue 1 (January 2016)

Connections

Connections publishes original empirical, theoretical, and methodological articles, as well as critical reviews dealing with applications of social network analysis. From volume 2018 the journal is published in a continous format.  The research spans many disciplines and domains including: Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology, Communication, Economics, Organizational Behavior, Knowledge Management, Marketing, Social Psychology, Mathematics, Public Health, Medicine, Computer Science, and Policy.  As an official journal of the International Network for Social Network Analysis, the emphasis of the publication is to reflect the ever-growing and continually expanding community of scholars using network analytic techniques. Connections also provides an outlet for sharing news about social network concepts and techniques and new tools for research.  Rejection rate: 60%  Open Access Policy  This journal provides immediate open access to its content under the Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Under the Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license users are free to share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and adapt the work (remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially) if the contribution was properly attributed and all of the changes indicated.  ABOUT SOCIETY  International Network for Social Network Analysis is the professional association for researchers interested in social network analysis. The association is a non-profit organization incorporated in the state of Delaware and founded by Barry Wellman in 1977.  INSNA was founded on the premise that the behavior and lives of social entities are affected by their position in the overall social structure. By examining the etiology and consequences of structural forms overall, of the location of entities within these structures, and of the formation and dynamics of ties that make up these structures, INSNA hopes to learn about the parts of behavior that are uniquely social.  Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process.