Blockmodeling for the analysis of social structures

The blockmodeling method, developed specifically for clustering network data, allows clustering nodes that have similar patterns of relationships with other nodes, and interpreting the structure of relationships between the resulting clusters.

Laboratory supervisors Anuška Ferligoj and Vladimir Batagelj, known as ones of the founders of this methodological area, are engaged in various new developments in this area, presenting new methods and blockmodeling algorithms for various types of network data, and actively applying them in empirical studies.

In Russian practice, the blockmodeling method is used to study the structure of the scientific community of sociologists (Tamara Shcheglova, Aryuna Radnaeva, Daria Maltseva).  

Publications

1. Ferligoj A., Žnidaršič A., Doreian P. Actor non-response in valued social networks: The impact of different non-response treatments on the stability of blockmodels // Social networks. 2017. Vol. 48. P. 46-56.
2. Cugmas M., Žiberna A., Ferligoj A. Mechanisms generating asymmetric core-cohesive blockmodels // Metodoloski Zvezki. 2019. Vol. 16. No. 1. P. 17-41.
3. Batagelj V. Clustering approaches to networks, in: Advances in Network Clustering and Blockmodeling / Ed. by P. Doreian, V. Batagelj, A. Ferligoj. Wiley Series in Computational and Quantitative Social Science. Wiley, 2020. Ch. 3. P. 65-104.
4. Batagelj V., Ferligoj A., Doreian P. Bibliometric analyses of the network clustering literature, in: Advances in Network Clustering and Blockmodeling / Ed. by P. Doreian, V. Batagelj, A. Ferligoj. Wiley Series in Computational and Quantitative Social Science. Wiley, 2020. Ch. 2. P. 11-63.
5. Cugmas M., Ferligoj A., Kronegger L. Scientific co-authorship networks, in: Advances in Network Clustering and Blockmodeling / Ed. by P. Doreian, V. Batagelj, A. Ferligoj. Wiley Series in Computational and Quantitative Social Science. Wiley, 2020. Ch. 13. P. 363-388.
6. Žnidaršič A., Doreian P., Ferligoj A. Treating missing network data before partitioning, in: Advances in Network Clustering and Blockmodeling / Ed. by P. Doreian, V. Batagelj, A. Ferligoj. Wiley Series in Computational and Quantitative Social Science. Wiley, 2020. Ch. 7. P. 189-224.