Methods Taster - Standing Group on Political Networks School

Abstract

Instructor: Carlos Bravo and Melanie Nagel No pre-registration required – just drop in on the day. For two decades, the team of the ECPR Standing Group on Political Networks has been offering an extensive range of social network analysis (SNA) training. SNA is a promising methodological tool, and its use has increased exponentially in recent years, with numerous applications in political, sociological, and organisational sciences. We successfully partnered with ECPR to organise a Winter School in January 2025, providing extensive knowledge of SNA basics, along with an overview of theories and data in political network research to participants. A central component of the School is its practical introduction to the programmes including R, DNA, and Visone. You will also be introduced to more advanced tools such as Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) and Discourse Network Analysis (DNA). This taster session will be divided into two parts. In the first 30 minutes, we will introduce the outline of the School and its learning objectives. The remainder of the session will be dedicated to a Q&A with the audience.