Academic Network Analysis
This section is intended for those interested in a more detailed discussion of network analysis. For an introduction to network analysis, visit the section What is network analysis? The following sections address various characteristics of a network that may be used to quantify social capital. For an introduction to social capital, visit the section What is social capital?
Network analysis is a tool to understand and predict both group and individual behavior based upon the relations within that group. This behavior may be cooperation, despite individual incentives to defect, mobilization for a cause, the spread of information, repayment of community-based microloans, or many other actions. All of these can be explained through network analysis and its quantification of social capital. This section takes a look at individual-level descriptors, which can be used to understand and predict individual behavior.