Models and Methods for Large-scale Interpersonal Networks: Space and Structure - Carter T. Butts

This book characterizes and investigates large relational networks via a family of stochastic network models based on the spatial layout of actors, which applies to the analysis of relational structures in large, spatially embedded populations. In addition to exploring some basic properties of these models, this text introduces a number of space-related measures of macrostructure that can be employed to aid in the characterization and investigation of these networks. Finally, this volume demonstrates the use of these measures on sample population distributions under empirically-calibrated spatial models, and presents some suggestions for additional investigations using simulation analysis. The result is a general theoretical and methodological framework for the treatment of large, spatially embedded social networks. This framework should be of value both in studying the effects of spatial macrostructure on other phenomena of social scientific interest (e.g., migration, information transfer, cultural diffusion, stratification) and in understanding the determinants of macrostructure itself. As such, the book is a must read for researchers who want to work with spatial network models.