Political Science 791P - S-Political Network Analysis

This is a course on political network analysis. The subject matter is part substantive political science, and part political methodology. Many see the makings of a paradigm shift in the social sciences centered around the concept of a network. Indeed, the term "social" implies a relation of some sort, and a network is simply a set of relations. The study of networks in political science has exploded over the last few years. This course will be cross-subfield in that we will examine network analysis in the areas of international relations, legislative politics, judicial politics, and public administration. Network scientists have developed a unique language and toolkit. Methods of network analysis are designed for an analytical problem that can dually be thought of as both large N and small N. Networks of interest to political scientists are often composed of thousands of relationships, yet they emerge and evolve as coordinated, highly interconnected, singular systems. We will cover methods of network analysis, especially those that have seen regular use in political science. Students will engage in their own analyses, using either data provided/collected by students, or replication data that has appeared in published work in political science.

This is a course on network analysis. The study of networks across the sciences has exploded recently. In this course, we will cover network scientific theory as it applies to the social sciences, network data collection and management, network visualization and description; and methods for the statistical analysis of networks. The course will make extensive use of real-world applications and students will gain a thorough background in the use of network analytic software. Most of the applications discussed will be drawn from political science, but this course will be relevant to anyone interested in network analytic research.