Analysing social networks

Working with a complex set of interrelationships in a social system. A social network is based on a set of interlinked points. These points need not necessarily be individuals, groups or other collectivities, they may be social status positions, social roles, or myths. The points may be events or intervals of time. Social networks may be composed of several kinds of relationship between several kinds of social entity at several different levels, and including relationships of an entity to itself. For large networks, such as a "community" or "society", the notion of social network is purely metaphorical because it subsumes, and therefore obscures, several different aspects of social relationships such as connectedness, intensity, status, and role. Networks of a manageable size for study and use will be focused as a specific set of linkages among a defined set of social entities (people, organizations etc.). In such social networks, characteristics of these linkages may also be used to interpret the social behaviour of the social entities involved.