Learning outcomes

The educational objectives of the course are the following:
- supply the necessary expertise to define the features of the relational contexts to which individuals belong, including in particular those who have suffered the effects of a catastrophic event;
- provide the necessary theoretical and methodological expertise for empirical analysis of the morphological qualities and contents of social networks, through the presentation of some methodological concepts and tools that aid social network analysis;
- make the students able to use an analytical framework for social network analysis to study and take action in relational contexts affected by catastrophic events, both regarding relations between individual subjects and those between collective subjects, and starting from egocentric and sociocentric perspectives.

Program

In order to achieve the educational objectives, the course programme is subdivided into three sections:
1) Theoretical section: - Society as a network; - The concepts of relationship and network in sociology; - Network paradigm: from the epistemological premise to the practice of social research.
2) Methodological section: - Introduction to social network analysis; - Relational sociology and social network analysis; - Personal and whole network analysis; - Relational data collection; - Representation of social networks, graph theory and data matrices; - Centrality and centralization; - Breakdown and condensation of graphs; - Analysis of positions and roles in social networks.
3) Empirical application section: - The application of social network analysis to the study of catastrophic events: cognitive potential and directions for social intervention; - Presentation, by way of example, of research carried out in contexts affected by catastrophic events, either of natural origin or connected to acts of terrorism, using both personal and whole social network analysis, in the study of networks consisting of individual subjects and those made up of collective subjects.

Examination Methods

Oral examination.

Reference books:
- P. Di Nicola (2015), La rete: metafora dell’appartenenza. Analisi strutturale e paradigma di rete, Milano, FrancoAngeli.
- A.M. Chiesi (1999), L’analisi dei reticoli, Milano, FrancoAngeli (except the Appendix).
- L. Tronca (2013), Sociologia relazionale e social network analysis. Analisi delle strutture sociali, Milano, FrancoAngeli (chapters 1 and 2).
- D.M. Varda, R. Forgette, D. Banks, N. Contractor (2009), Social Network Methodology in the Study of Disasters: Issues and Insights Prompted by Post-Katrina Research, in «Population Research and Policy Review», 28, 1, pp. 11-29.
- J.S. Hurlbert, V.A. Haines, J.J. Beggs (2000), Core Networks and Tie Activation: What Kinds of Routine Networks Allocate Resources in Nonroutine Situations?, in «American Sociological Review», 65, 4, pp. 598-618.
- N. Kapucu (2005), Interorganizational Coordination in Dynamic Context: Networks in Emergency Response Management, in «Connections», 26, 2, pp. 33-48.

Teaching materials e documents

•   Programma e testi consigliati   (msword, it, 36 KB, 14/07/15)
•   Programma e testi consigliati inglese   (msword, it, 37 KB, 10/07/15)