MCSN Tuesday, 20-Sep-11

Course mechanics

• Please bring in your laptops so we can work together.
• Quiz. Will cover definitions from chapters 1 and 2 only through today's reading.
• Readings: by section, not page (section 2.4 means read all of it, i.e. 2.4.1, 2.4.2, etc.)
• Moodle
  • issues?
  • grading for 9/13 done - please see me if you have questions. A couple of people perhaps had trouble using the Moodle...
  • please upload all assignments to the Moodle, including examples prepared for class: "come to class prepared with a Pajek example drawn from the Web, and illustrating chapter content." That way I have everything on file.

Pajek mechanics

• Important to get everything working. What didn't work?
• Chapter 2:
  • World system (Immanuel Wallerstein): core, semiperiphery, periphery. Claim: relation between trade position and mode of production. Network data helps establish trade position using block modeling (3 positions).
  • Data: Contains inter-country trade in metal manufactures, in $1k USD units as a valued digraph. Also assigns world system positions from 1980 and c. 1994 using partitions, as well as providing a continent partition, and GDP data as a vector.
  • Partition
  • Vector
• Individual help while others generate examples using techniques in chapter 2.

Last week...

• Further brainstorms?
• Examples of network graphs from last Thursday
• Assignment 1.7. Examples. What sorts of methodological or ethical issues arose? How do you wish you'd changed your question?