González-Bailón, Sandra
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Publication Presentation on "Measuring Social Phenomena"(2016-06-01) González-Bailón, Sandra; Strohmaier, MarkusPublication Presentation on "Network Science and the Study of Political Protests"(2015-05-01) González-Bailón, SandraPublication Seminar on "The Emergence of Roles in Large-Scale Networks of Communication"(2014-09-01) González-Bailón, SandraCommunication through social media is becoming more prevalent in dynamics of coordination and information diffusion. However, online networks are so large and complex that we require new methods to summarize their structure and identify nodes holding relevant positions. We propose a method that generalizes the sociological theory of brokerage, originally devised on the basis of local transitivity and paths of length two, to make it applicable to larger, more complex structures. Our method makes use of the modular structure of networks to define brokerage at the local and global levels. The findings show that the method is better able to capture differences in communication dynamics than alternative approaches that only consider local or global network features.Publication Online Social Networks and Bottom-Up Politics(2014-01-01) González-Bailón, SandraPublication The Role of Dynamic Networks in Social Capital: A Simulation Experiment(2006-01-01) Gonález-Bailón, SandraThis paper has two basic aims: the first is to understand why networks matter in the creation and maintenance of social capital; the second is to explore many of the (unproved) assumptions that arise when social capital is applied to the field of political participation. A simulation- based experiment is used to achieve both aims. The paper starts by delimiting the scope of the theoretical problem. It then reviews the assumptions made in the literature about the role networks play for social capital, and integrates them with what is known about dynamic networks. The third section provides a brief introduction to the methodological nature of simulation. It justifies the appropriateness of this technique to tackle the questions posed by the existing theory. A description of the simulation model and its results follows. The first set of experiments explores the structural properties of different networks in respect of information diffusion. The second set analyses a principle of action that might be responsible for the formation of social capital networks. The implications that these results have for the theory are assessed in the conclusion. Their links to future research are also discussed.Publication The Critical Periphery in the Growth of Social Protests(2015-11-30) Barberá, Pablo; Wang, Ning; Bonneau, Richard; Jost, John; Nagler, Jonathan; Tucker, Joshua; González-Bailón, SandraSocial media have provided instrumental means of communication in many recent political protests. The efficiency of online networks in disseminating timely information has been praised by many commentators; at the same time, users are often derided as “slacktivists” because of the shallow commitment involved in clicking a forwarding button. Here we consider the role of these peripheral online participants, the immense majority of users who surround the small epicenter of protests, representing layers of diminishing online activity around the committed minority. We analyze three datasets tracking protest communication in different languages and political contexts through the social media platform Twitter and employ a network decomposition technique to examine their hierarchical structure. We provide consistent evidence that peripheral participants are critical in increasing the reach of protest messages and generating online content at levels that are comparable to core participants. Although committed minorities may constitute the heart of protest movements, our results suggest that their success in maximizing the number of online citizens exposed to protest messages depends, at least in part, on activating the critical periphery. Peripheral users are less active on a per capita basis, but their power lies in their numbers: their aggregate contribution to the spread of protest messages is comparable in magnitude to that of core participants. An analysis of two other datasets unrelated to mass protests strengthens our interpretation that core-periphery dynamics are characteristically important in the context of collective action events. Theoretical models of diffusion in social networks would benefit from increased attention to the role of peripheral nodes in the propagation of information and behavior.Publication Diffusion Dynamics With Changing Network Composition(2013-01-01) Baños, Raquel A; Borge-Holthoefer, Javier; Wang, Nang; Moreno, Yamir; González-Bailón, SandraWe analyze information diffusion using empirical data that tracks online communication around two instances of mass political mobilization that took place in Spain in 2011 and 2012. We also analyze protest-related communications during the year that elapsed between those protests. We compare the global properties of the topological and dynamic networks through which communication took place, as well as local changes in network composition. We show that changes in network structure underlie aggregated differences on how information diffused: an increase in network hierarchy is accompanied by a reduction in the average size of cascades. The increasing hierarchy affects not only the underlying communication topology but also the more dynamic structure of information exchange; the increase is especially noticeable amongst certain categories of nodes (or users). Our findings suggest that the relationship between the structure of networks and their function in diffusing information is not as straightforward as some theoretical models of diffusion in networks imply.Publication ¿SOCIEDADES ARTIFICIALES? Una introducción a la simulación social(2004-09-01) Gonález-Bailón, SandraThese lines have a twofold objective: to introduce social simulation as a technique of analysis, and to offer a view of its uses and possibilities. The article starts with a couple of examples aimed to illustrate the practice of simulation. The methodological aspects associated to it are then exposed to, finally, highlight the pros (and cons) of its use. The aim of social simulation is the same as that of statistical equations and ideal types: to generate models of the social reality that help us to build or validate theories about its regularities. What turns social simulation into an innovative analytical strategy is not its objectives but rather its means: programming algorithms that contain the behavioural rules of agents that interact among them and with their environment. The advantages of social simulation are not only experimental but also, and specially, theoretic: it allows the search of the mechanisms that statistical models cannot provide.Publication Cascading Behaviour in Complex Soci-Technical Networks(2013-04-22) Borge-Holthoefer, Javier; Baños, Raquel A.; González-Bailón, Sandra; Moreno, YamirMost human interactions today take place with the mediation of information and communications technology. This is extending the boundaries of interdependence: the group of reference, ideas and behaviour to which people are exposed is larger and less restricted to old geographical and cultural boundaries; but it is also providing more and better data with which to build more informative models on the effects of social interactions, amongst them, the way in which contagion and cascades diffuse in social networks. Online data are not only helping us gain deeper insights into the structural complexity of social systems, they are also illuminating the consequences of that complexity, especially around collective and temporal dynamics. This paper offers an overview of the models and applications that have been developed in what is still a nascent area of research, as well as an outline of immediate lines of work that promise to open new vistas in our understanding of cascading behaviour in social networks.Publication The Emergence of Roles in Large-Scale Networks of Communication(2014-11-07) González-Bailón, Sandra; Wang, Ning; Borge-Holthoefer, JavierCommunication through social media mediates coordination and information diffusion across a range of social settings. However, online networks are large and complex, and their analysis requires new methods to summarize their structure and identify nodes holding relevant positions. We propose a method that generalizes the sociological theory of brokerage, originally devised on the basis of local transitivity and paths of length two, to make it applicable to larger, more complex structures. Our method makes use of the modular structure of networks to define brokerage at the local and global levels. We test the method with two different data sets. The findings show that our approach is better at capturing role differences than alternative approaches that only consider local or global network features.