Social Networks

Why do ideas go viral? Why do some people become influential while others remain invisible? How do innovations, political opinions, and opportunities spread through society?In Social Networks, Tommy Andersson and Christofer Edling bring together many of the world's leading scholars in the field of network science to explain how the relationships between people shape the world around us. Based on a Nobel Symposium organized by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the volume offers an overview of one of the most important developments in modern science: the realization that understanding individuals, firms, and organizations is often not enough. We must also understand the networks that connect them. Through examples drawn from economics, sociology, politics, public health, epidemiology, and other areas, they show how network structures influence everything from markets and careers to polarization, segregation, and the spread of infectious diseases. The book explores fundamental questions about trust, cooperation, influence, social capital, contagion, and collective behavior. It also examines how new computational tools and artificial intelligence are transforming our ability to map, analyze, and predict network dynamics.A unique multidisciplinary perspective on a field that is increasingly central to understanding contemporary society, Social Networks is an essential guide for anyone interested in how connections between people shape economic, social, and political outcomes.This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license. It is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.