Description
Book SynopsisToday, interest in networks is growing by leaps and bounds, in both scientific discourse and popular culture. Networks are thought to be everywhere from the architecture of our brains to global transportation systems.
Trade Review"It doesn't get better than this: an accessible treatment of an exciting but often abstruse topic by a leading figure in the field. Further, it organizes a wide range of materials to make a strong and compelling case. A wonderful contribution."
—John Levi Martin, University of Chicago
"This is a path-breaking book that brilliantly describes one of the most exciting intellectual developments in the contemporary human sciences – the melding of network science with the study of culture. McLean tackles this complex topic with clarity and precision, providing both a comprehensive review of the field and a coherent theoretical synthesis."
—John Mohr, University of California, Santa Barbara
"[T]his book, which beautifully blends the complex topics of cultural sociology and social network analysis... is written as both an informative exploration of the intersection between social networks and the study of culture, and a hopeful plea for the empirically rich exploration of 'network culture(s)' using both qualitative and quantitative methods.... Scholars and students looking for a book that will challenge them to engage with alternative approaches to the study of networks and culture will benefit from the combination of detailed inquiry and open-ended questions."
—Information, Communication and Society
Table of Contents1. Culture and Social Networks: A Conceptual Framework
PART I: Fundamental Concepts
2. The Nuts and Bolts of Networks, through a Cultural Lens
3. Basic Culture Concepts, with a Networks Inflection
PART II: Linkages of Networks with Culture
4. Culture through Networks: Diffusion, Contagion, Virality, Memes
5. Culture from Networks: The Network Genesis of Culture
6. Networks from Culture: How Norms and Tastes Shape Networks
7. Networks of Culture: Culture as Relational Structures
8. Networks as Culture, or Networks and Culture Fused
Bibliography
Notes
