Abstract

OLIVA, Miguel  and  CHUCHCO, Nicolás Vladimir. SNA and social systems: interdisciplinary approaches to the analysis of social structure. Inter disciplina [online]. 2021, vol.9, n.23, pp.57-82.  Epub May 05, 2021. ISSN 2448-5705.  https://doi.org/10.22201/ceiich.24485705e.2021.23.77346.

This essay focuses on identifying possible contributions of social network analysis (SNA) to the analysis of social structure. Potential contribution of reticular perspectives to delimit a social structure and describe its evolution are examined. Luhmann’s concepts from a systemic perspective (and their exchanges with Parson’s theory of social action systems) and from Gidden’s theory of social structuring are approached. The Marxist vision of social structure is not discussed in this essay since this would imply an ex-haustive theoretical review that exceeds its objective. Some advantages of the notion of “social networks” for the study of social structure -in a complementary way to classical attributive techniques of modern empirical sociology- are reviewed. Indicators, metrics, random network models, and SNA topologies are proposed for this challenge. The empirical and theoretical approaches are considered to allow an integrated corpus for the conceptualization and research of the social structure. The application of network thinking to examine the social structure is somewhat original, since this perspective has been more frequently used to analyze the dynamics of certain agents or groups within a society. It is concluded that the confluence of the SNA with some theoretical notions of the theory of social systems is useful for the analysis of the social structure, conceptualized as dynamic patterns of real and potential exchanges between human individuals in network format.

Keywords : social structure; social network analysis; SNA; systems theory; social structuring.

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