Guest post: The usefulness of mapping social networks
Originally a comment by guest on We like to live in the just world.
All of these comments are making me realise what an excellent course this would make – a history of the causes of the Industrial Revolution/justification for current global economic inequality, from the canonical roll-call of clever Englishmen (and Scotsmen) through naturalistic, cultural and institutional explanations to the story emerging today based on new research methods, connections among disciplines and information sources. I cannot possibly be the first person to think of this (though you never know, I’ve been surprised before) – over winter break I’ll ask around and see if I can find people who have done this/are doing this, and if I do come across any good course outlines or reading lists I’ll share.
One of these new research methods is prosopography, the study of social networks – up until about 20 years ago prosopographical tools were used almost exclusively by classical and ecclesiastical historians, but since then a lot more people have become aware of the usefulness of mapping social networks in understanding knowledge transfer and the workings of power. They also help set the ‘great men’ of technology into their social context, helping us see them not as ‘lone geniuses’ but more as foci for the contributions required for innovation to happen. A great example of this is one historian’s lockdown project of linking all the named people involved in creating the SS Great Britain.
I’m not sure what anyone’s actually used this for yet, but it’s a unique – I think? – visualisation of the personal connections required for innovation to happen. I’d love to see more of these (but I can appreciate that they are a hell of a lot of work, and I wouldn’t wish for another lockdown just so more historians get bored enough to do this).
The study of social networks has been pursued by social historians for decades. Here is an open access paper by Lawrence Stone, published in 1971: ‘Prosopography’.
If you’ve not heard of him, I recommend looking into James Burke and especially his BBC series, Connections. It’s from awhile ago, but it was far ahead of its time and remains quite relevant as an exploration of recorded history. The eponymous institute has a longrunning project (apparently perennially in beta) called Knowledge Web which hopes to “…map the interior landscape of human thought and experience…” where one can “…can explore information in a highly interconnected, holistic way that allows for an almost infinite number of paths of exploration among people, places, things, and events…”
Food for thought.
According to an MSN interview, Burke has done a new version of his Connections series and published it just this year, in fact — it is apparently available on Curiosity Stream.
Connections was brilliant. I have the book version somewhere – should dig it out.
I loved Connections. He also did The Day the Universe Changed, and The Real Thing. All worth watching, all on youtube too, apparently.
Ooooooh I never thought to look. Thanks for the reminder!