THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS A STUDY IN THE SOCIOLOGY OF SCIENCE Linton C. Freeman ΣP Empirical Press Vancouver, BC Canada THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS Library of Congress Control Number: 2004111710 Publisher: BookSurge, LLC North Charleston, South Carolina ISBN 1-59457-714-5 © 2004 Linton C. Freeman All rights reserved. Published in 2004 Printed in the United States of America ΣP Empirical Press, Vancouver, BC Canada Cover and book design by Rosemary Boyd, Document Design Laguna Beach, CA “We all connect, like a net we cannot see.” —Mickenberg and Dugan, Taxi Driver Wisdom, 1995 THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS Jacob L. Moreno Harrison C. White This work is dedicated to Jacob L. Moreno and Harrison White. Without the mammoth contributions of these two scholar- teachers there would be no field of social network analysis. THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS Contents List of Illustrations........................................................................ ix Preface ............................................................................................ xi Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................ 1 Chapter 2: Prehistory: The Origins of Social Network Ideas and Practices........................................................................... 10 Chapter 3: The Birth of Social Network Analysis I: Sociometry .............................................................................. 31 Chapter 4: The Birth of Social Network Analysis II: The First Harvard Thrust ..................................................... 43 Chapter 5: Social Network Analysis During the Dark Ages I: the 1940s ................................................... 65 Chapter 6: Social Network Analysis During the Dark Ages II: the 1950s .................................................. 82 Chapter 7: Social Network Analysis During the Dark Ages III: the 1960s .............................................. 113 Chapter 8: The Renaissance at Harvard ................................ 121 Chapter 9: Getting Organized .................................................. 129 Chapter 10: A Summary and Some Surprises ....................... 159 Acknowledgments..................................................................... 169 References ................................................................................... 173 Index ............................................................................................ 195 vii THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS Figures Figure 1.1. Association between number of substantive areas specified and year of publication of social network research ................................ 5 Figure 2.1. Auguste Comte honored on a French postage stamp ............... 11 Figure 2.2. Plaque at Comte’s Paris residence ...........................................12 Figure 2.3. Georg Simmel ........................................................................... 15 Figure 2.4. Hobson’s two mode data .......................................................... 19 Figure 2.5. Morgan’s descent system of ancient Rome .............................. 22 Figure 2.6. Macfarlane’s images of two-step marriage prohibitions .......... 23 Figure 2.7. Hobson’s hypergraph ............................................................... 24 Figure 2.8. Sir Francis Galton, 1909, with a young Karl Pearson ............ 25 Figure 3.1. Sociogram of a football team .................................................... 38 Figure 4.1. W. Lloyd Warner, circa 1920s..................................................44 Figure 4.2. An idealized model of overlapping “cliques” ..........................46 Figure 4.3. Friendships in the bank wiring room ....................................... 50 Figure 4.4. Reported “cliques” in the bank wiring room ........................... 50 Figure 4.5. Allison Davis honored on a U.S. postage stamp ..................... 51 Figure 4.6. St. Clair Drake ........................................................................ 52 Figure 4.7. Attendance of 18 women at 14 social events ........................... 52 Figure 4.8. “Clique” memberships of males ............................................... 53 Figure 4.9. George Caspar Homans ........................................................... 56 Figure 4.10. Whyte’s image of the Nortons ............................................... 59 Figure 5.1. Kurt Lewin (before he immigrated to America) ....................... 66 Figure 5.2. Alex Bavelas ............................................................................. 69 Figure 5.3. Experimental communication forms studied by the Bavelas group ................................................................................................... 70 Figure 5.4. The Festinger graph ................................................................. 72 Figure 5.5. Claude Lévi-Strauss ................................................................. 78 Figure 5.6. Directed graphs from Lévi-Strauss .......................................... 80 Figure 6.1. The Rashevsky seminar ............................................................ 87 ix THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS Figure 6.2. Paul Lazarsfeld ........................................................................91 Figure 6.3. Robert Merton..........................................................................91 Figure 6.4. Everett M. Rogers ..................................................................100 Figure 6.5. Alfred Reginald Radcliffe-Brown ...........................................101 Figure 6.6. Max Gluckman with John Barnes .........................................104 Figure 6.7. Karl Deutsch ..........................................................................106 Figure 6.8. Ithiel de Sola Pool ..................................................................107 Figure 7.1. Edward O. Laumann ............................................................. 115 Figure 9.1. Influences on some founders of social network analysis ........131 Figure 9.2. Social proximities at the start of the EIES research ............... 133 Figure 9.3. Direction of positional change during the EIES research ......133 Figure 9.4. Final locations of individuals in the EIES research ............... 134 Figure 9.5. Migrations linking social network research centers ..............137 Figure 9.6. Participants in the 1975 Dartmouth Conference ..................144 Figure 9.7. Participants in the 1979 East-West Center Conference ........146 Figure 9.8. Barry Wellman .......................................................................147 Figure 9.9. The Sun Belt and European Meetings ...................................154 Figure 10.1. Citation patterns in the Small World literature ..................166 Figure 10.2. Number of social network articles listed in Sociological Abstracts by year .............................................................................167 x Preface This book was produced with a great deal of help from a lot of people. Many of the early practitioners of the social net- work approach allowed themselves to be interviewed—either face-to-face, or by telephone, email or regular old-fashioned let- ter mail. These include Peter Abell, John Barnes, Russ Bernard, Peter Blau, Liz Bott, John Boyd, Kathleen Carley, Doc Cartwright, Jim Davis, Alain Degenne, Pat Doreian, Tom Fararo, Claude Fla- ment, Michel Forsé, Ove Frank, Sue Freeman, Bill Garrison, Tor- sten Hägerstrand, Maureen Hallinan, Muriel Hammer, Frank Harary, Paul Holland, Charles Kadushin, Larry Kincaid, Al Klovdahl, Ed Laumann, Hal Leavitt, Sam Leinhardt, Joel Levine, Nan Lin, Larissa Lomnitz, Duncan Luce, Bob Merton, Clyde Mitchell, Rob Mokken, Woody Pitts, Charles Proctor, Anatol Rapoport, Ev Rogers, Arnold Simel, Tom Snijders, Frans Stok- man, Morry Sunshine, Chuck Tilley, Barry Wellman, Doug White, Harrison White, Al Wolfe and Rolf Ziegler. A good many of these people went to great pains to produce detailed accounts of who influenced them to think in the structural perspective of social network analysis. These individuals provided most of the in- formation that has gone into the present historical account. In addition, I received useful feedback from a number of people after I presented a preliminary version of this historical review at the International Sunbelt Social Network Conference in Vancouver, BC, on April 12, 2000. The detailed written sug- gestions provided by Davor Jedlicka, Peter Marsden, Frans Stok- xi man and Barry Wellman were particularly helpful. And a good many colleagues have read all or parts of this manuscript and provided useful feedback. These include John Barnes, Mike Brower, Katie Faust, Sue Freeman, Irving Louis Horowitz, Do- minic Jesse, Charles Kadushin, Bob Merton, Cal Morrill, Woody Pitts, Ev Rogers, M. de Lourdes Sosa, Cindy Webster, Doug White, Robin Williams and, most of all, Morry Sunshine, who has worked harder than anyone could reasonably expect. Beyond this relatively recent input, I learned a great deal from earlier discussions I had with others who were involved in the development of social network analysis but who are no longer available to be interviewed. Among these, my conversations with Gregory Bateson, Jim Coleman, St. Clair Drake, Fred Kochen, Paul Lazarsfeld, Jiri Nehnevajsa, Ithiel de Sola Pool, Tom Sch- weizer and Bill Whyte are particularly memorable. Each had an impact on my thinking about the field. I am also grateful to Rosemary