Social Network Analysis and Theory: Proposal for a Novel Study

Throughout the term, you have been introduced to a variety of academic articles within the field of social network analysis. These articles have informed your thinking about your project, and consequently, your project should help extend, or challenge, the ideas found in these articles. In this assignment, your task is to propose a novel study that combines a substantive case topic of your choosing and a main theoretical technique/concept that we have covered in this course. The combination should match with what you have covered in the Critical Literature Review assignment, otherwise, you will need to complete a new literature review for inclusion in this assignment.

This assignment will consist of four distinct sections (aside from the works cited or references page). These sections are: Introduction, Literature Review, Methods, Contributions. Each section will be discussed below.

1.Introduction section (0.5-1 pages)
This section will introduce your research topic, that is, your substantive case/topic and your selected theoretical technique/concept. This section should only be a few sentences and establish a ‘gap’ that your research will fill. This can be created by making a ‘problem’ statement – e.g. Research in topic area would benefit from a social networks approach, particularly an investigation using the strength of ties because reason why it would benefit. You can identify theoretical gaps, methodological gaps, findings gaps, or innovation gaps here. You need to feature a research question in this section. This question should be unique to your technique/concept and case/topic area. This section should be no longer than 1 page double-spaced and no shorter than 0.5 pages double-spaced.

2.Literature review section (4-5 pages)
This section will contain the literature that you have reviewed in preparation for your proposal. If you have the same topic and technique as your critical literature review, you may use the critical literature review you submitted previously as a ‘base’ as long as you edit it according to the TA’s suggestions. If you have changed either the topic or the technique, you will need to create a new literature review accordingly. This section’s length should be approximately a minimum of 3 pages double-spaced and a maximum of 5 pages double-spaced.

3.Methods section (4-5 pages)
This section will outline the methods that you are going to utilize to investigate your research question (stated in the introduction section). At this point, you should be familiar with the more theoretical aspects of social network analysis, so we are not looking for you to include the mathematical aspects of your chosen technique (e.g. Bonacich centrality). Instead, we are looking for you to address each of the following questions in this section (not necessarily in the same order as listed):

Social networks concept

1. What social networks technique/concept are you going to utilize? Why?

2. How are you going to measure the social networks technique/concept? Why?

3. If it is a concept with multiple operational definitions (e.g. centrality), which one will you use? Why?

Sampling

1. Who makes up the population that you want to sample?

2. How many individuals/units are you going to sample (include in your sample)? Why?

3. Are you going to use an ego-centric or a whole networks approach? Why?

Data collection

1. Is this a cross-sectional design, or are you going to do a longitudinal study? Why?

2. Will you primarily use qualitative or quantitative data collection techniques? Why?

3. Based on the answer to the question above, which specific techniques will you employ? Why?

You may make citations to the literature within the methods section, especially in cases where you will be drawing on the methods of other articles for inclusion in your research project. This section should be no longer than 5 pages double-spaced and no shorter than 3 pages double-spaced.

4.Contributions section (0.5-1 pages)
In this section you will need to address both the contributions and limitations of your study. In particular, how does your research question contribute both to your chosen substantive topic area and the social networks technique/concept? How might the findings of your project affect social policy or a particular group in society, if applicable? After you have outlined the contributions of your study, you will need to address the limitations of your project. If you are finding that the limitations outweigh the contributions, try to adjust your research design to address these limitations. In general, be ambitious, but realistic, with the scope of your project.