MCSN Thursday,08-Sep-11
Introduction
- Ethnomusicology: the study of global music culture
- What is music culture? Broad definition includes:
- social: music relations and practices, from individual to group, over time
- semantic: discourses, concepts and meanings of music
- phenomenological: experiences and emotions in music performance
- sonic: musical form and content
- What is a social network (SN)?
- Traditional concepts used to describe social structures--the aggregate of social relations--are vague, macro, and often ideologically a priori (e.g. "culture", "class", "government")
- The concept of SN allows us to make social structure precise by defining social relations precisely.
- The theory and method of SN research is called "Social network analysis" (SNA) and is based on graph theory.
- SNA
- Theory of Graphs, and its applications to social groups
- What is a graph? Some terms.
- Node, vertex
- Link, edge, arc
- Social groups as graphs (social networks)
- Nodes represent social entities
- Links represent relations between social entities
- Properties of nodes and links:
- Network properties
- Attribute properties
- What is a graph? Some terms.
- Methods
- Data collection
- Data analysis
- Statistical measures
- Exploration vs hypothesis testing
- Software: Pajek: download and install
- Ethical problems in SNA methodology
- Brief history of SNA
- Theory of Graphs, and its applications to social groups
- MCSN and ethnomusicology
- Musical networks (MNs)
- Musical Social Networks (MSNs)
- Research in MCSN
- Defining a relevant phenomenon
- Formulating a naive research question (how? what? why?)
- Theorizing the question using a model derived from SNA theory
- exploratory research
- variable analysis research (comparing networks, or relating network and attribute variables within a single network)
- Designing a feasible research method to answer the question
Course mechanics
- Wiki: for course outline, resources, lecture notes, your collective contributions
- See especially the MCSN 2011 schedule (linked from the main page)
- Moodle: for uploading assignments
- Tuesdays: more lecturing, presenting material, answering questions.
- Thursdays: more review, demos, discussions, brainstorming...
- Self-guided days, facilitators
- Pajek: practice makes perfect!
- Installing
- Using
- Pajek help
- ESNAP: primary textbook
- participation, including attendance, and demos (Thurs).
- chapter exercises, questions (due Thurs), assignments (due Tues)
- grading; late and missed work policies
- Course outline: bit.ly/mcsn
- Course expectations
- Reading and exercises
- Homework
- Quizzes
- Research paper
Homework
- Social structure. Read Preface, p. 1, and sections 1.1 to 1.3.2.
- Read Robin Wilson, Introduction to Graph Theory, ch. 1 and do the exercises at the end of the chapter.
- Brainstorm: your examples of MCSN with research questions