A social network[1] is a structure made up of individuals or organizations, known as actors, and the relationships or connections between them, referred to as ties. It is a field deeply rooted in disciplines such as sociology, psychology, statistics, and graph theory. The analysis of these networks, known as Social Network Analysis, involves identifying patterns, pinpointing influential entities, and studying how these networks evolve over time. It uses a variety of methodologies to study these structures. The development of this field has been significantly influenced by figures like Georg Simmel and Jacob Moreno, who made significant contributions to social network theories and methods. The study of social networks is interdisciplinary in nature, employing diverse methods to analyze network dynamics and patterns.
A social network est un social structure made up of a set of sociale actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other social interactions between actors. The social network perspective provides a set of methods for analyzing the structure of whole social entities as well as a variety of theories explaining the patterns observed in these structures. The study of these structures uses l'analyse des réseaux sociaux to identify local and global patterns, locate influential entities, and examine network dynamics.
Social networks and the analysis of them is an inherently interdisciplinary academic field which emerged from social psychology, sociology, statisticset graph theory. Georg Simmel authored early structural theories in sociology emphasizing the dynamics of triads and "web of group affiliations". Jacob Moreno is credited with developing the first sociograms in the 1930s to study interpersonal relationships. These approaches were mathematically formalized in the 1950s and theories and methods of social networks became pervasive in the social and behavioral sciences by the 1980s. Analyse des réseaux sociaux is now one of the major paradigms in contemporary sociology, and is also employed in a number of other social and formal sciences. Together with other complex networks, it forms part of the nascent field of network science.