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Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications, by Stanley Wasserman and Katherine Faust. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994. 825 pp. $64.95 cloth. ISBN: 0-521-38269-6. $29.95 paper. ISBN: 0-521-38707-8.
DAVID KNOKE University of Minnesota
The long-awaited publication of this volume marks a half-century maturation of social network analysis into a multidisciplinary research specialty with distinctive vocabulary, theoretical principles, and data-analytic techniques. Although Stanley Wasserman and Katherine Faust modestly describe their goal as a methodological reference work, a perusal of their 1,000+ references and the numerous data illustrations reveals a wide range of substantive applications by sociologists, social psychologists, anthroplogists, political scientists, social workers, communications, business and public health researchers, and even the odd economist. By no coincidence, this stock-taking effort appeared on the eve of the consolidation by U.S. and European branches into a single international social network conference. As a road map of the terrain, Social Network Analysis is assured of frequent consultation by seasoned researchers and novices alike. (The Book Reviewer's Full Disclosure Act requires revealing my professional connections to the authors and the fact that Cambridge's structural analysis series includes my own network book: another instance of "small world" phenomena found in every specialty.)
With their roots in Simmel's web of affiliations and Moreno's sociograms, contemporary social network analysts emphasize the relational connections among social actors rather than the standard focus on individuals' attributes, attitudes, and actions. The contrast is epitomized by alternative survey items asking, "How often do you...