Exploratory Social Network Analysis with Pajek

This is the first textbook on social network analysis integrating theory, applications, and professional software for performing network analysis (Pajek). Step by step, the book introduces the main structural concepts and their applications in social research with exercises to test the understanding. An application section explaining how to perform the network analyses with Pajek software follows each theoretical section. Pajek software and datasets for all examples are freely available, so the reader can learn network analysis by doing it. In addition, each chapter offers case studies for practising network analysis. In the end, the reader has the knowledge, skills, and tools to apply social network analysis in all social sciences, ranging from anthropology and sociology to business administration and history. • Learning by doing: hands-on experience from day one with Pajek professional computer software for network analysis and visualization (operating under Windows 95 and later), computer procedures are extensively discussed and illustrated • Each chapter starts with visual exploration, followed by computation of formal indices, because visualization helps to understand the structural feature summarized by an index. No formulae; concepts from mathematical graph theory are presented verbatim and visually • An introduction to basic concepts from network analysis as well as their application in the social sciences; network concepts are presented in the frame of social theory; a wide variety of real life examples from several social sciences, which demonstrate research strategies in social network analysis