Demival Vasques Filho
Affiliated Scholar, The Leibniz Institute of European History
Building a framework for population-scale network analysis
May 5, 2022 - 12:00 PM Eastern Time
Virtual Location:
Zoom
Talk Abstract:
Traditional network analysis methods become unfeasible when addressing the structure of large-scale networks. First, it is computationally too expensive and even irrelevant to calculate centrality scores for networks of millions of people. Second, and more importantly, one-mode networks (and pairwise interactions) are insufficient as they disregard the crucial role that organizations play in forming social structure. Thus, a more realistic approach to general population structures is crucial to enhance data collection methods, study design in several fields, and policy-making.
In the talk, I will discuss the mains points and concepts we are considering for building a framework that spotlights organizations (collective interactions). The framework emphasizes that ties between actors arise and evolve according to organizations to which they belong, a notion straightforwardly modeled through two-mode and projected networks. I argue that structural properties such as tie strength, heterogeneity of actor popularity and strength, clustering, communities, and segregation emerge from homophily, jointly with overlap and social activity–two mechanisms we introduce in this framework. That is, the framework challenges the widely accepted role of preferential attachment and triadic closure as primary mechanisms of social network formation.
Our results so far show that organization size distributions modulate network structures by interweaving with social activity distributions and that overlap increases segregation from a network viewpoint. The framework’s implications are broad, potentially affecting the study design of several social processes ranging from social cohesion, tolerance, and child development to the spread of infectious diseases.
Speaker Bio:
Demival Vasques Filho holds a bachelor's degree in Engineering Physics from the Federal University of Sao Carlos (UFSCar), in Brazil. After graduating, he went to work in the industry, returning to academia after a long break in 2015. He obtained his PhD in Physics, in the area of complexity and network theory, at the University of Auckland, in New Zealand. His thesis explored the structure and evolution of large social networks. During his PhD, he was part of several different projects involving networks, such as collaboration networks for scientific and technological innovation, networks of political power and political activity, and correspondence networks in the modern Portuguese Empire. He is interested in developing new methods and expanding the application of complex systems concepts to the study of the humanities and social sciences.