Joel H. Levine

THE SPHERE OF INFLUENCE

This is a study of network representation: The data represent a set of interlocked directorates—specifically, the network in which the boards of major banks are interlocked with the boards of major industrials. The problem is to represent this network so as to organize it and describe its major outlines. Using an unfolding variant of smallest space analysis, the problem is solved by a spherical map: the “Sphere of Influence.” The sectors of the sphere represent similarly-linked corporations, and the relations among the sectors represent the relations among bank-industrial communities.

Joint-space analysis of “pick-any” data: Analysis of choices from an unconstrained set of alternatives

Social and naturally occurring choice phenomena are often of the “pick-any” type in which the number of choices made by a subject as well as the set of alternatives from which they are chosen is unconstrained. These data present a special analytical problem because the meaning of non-choice among pick-any choice data is always ambiguous: A non-chosen alternative may be either unacceptable, or acceptable but not considered, or acceptable and considered but not chosen. A model and scaling method for these data are introduced, allowing for this ambiguity of non-choice. Subjects are represented as points whose coordinates are proportional to the centroids of the points representing their choices. Alternatives are represented at points whose coordinates are proportional to the centroids of the points representing subjects who have chosen them. This centroid scaling technique estimates multidimensional joint spaces from the pick-any data.

Extended Correlation Not Necessarily Quadratic or Quantitative

What is the correlation between two variables? Traditional answers offer summary assessments such as Pearson’s r and regression coefficients. But new computing techniques make it possible to construct conceptually simple hypotheses that describe the full joint distribution of two variables, making it possible to “mine” the correlation for information that was previously unused. This article begins with evidence of systematic anomalies in the empirical joint distribution of height-weight data and follows with a hypothesis that explains these anomalies in terms of a theoretical joint distribution relative to a linear equation. The hypothesis has serious consequences because even in traditional examples, while it offers an improved fit to the data, its estimates of the linear center do not correspond to traditional least squares estimates of the linear relation for the same two variables.

Socio-Cultural Cognitive Mapping

We introduce Socio-cultural Cognitive Mapping (SCM), a method to characterize populations based on shared attributes, placing these actors on a spatial representation. We introduce the technique, taking the reader through an overview of the algorithm. We conclude with an example use-case of the Hatfield-McCoy feud. In the Hatfield-McCoy case, the SCM process clearly delineates members of the opposing clans as well as gender.

The Methodology of the Atlas Of Corporate Interlocks

The interlocks between boards of directors of some 400 of the worlds largest corporations are studied with methods of network analysis and, in particular, with the original methods of centroid scaling and frequency reconstruction scaling. The former furnishes stable global maps of these interlocks and discerns five groups of corporations: the French group; the Swiss group; the German group; the Dutch group; the British-Canadian-American-South-African group. The latter method furnishes very detailed maps of the internal structure of these groups and the ties between these groups. This article consists of the methodological sections of the authors book, Atlas of Corporate Interlocks, Worldnet (Box A-201, Hanover NH 0375), 1985, 2 volumes, 501 p, 495 US. Social network analysis, interlocking directorates, corporations, centroid scaling, frequency reconstruction scaling.

NEW DOMAINS FOR STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS

Can network thinking be extended to the broad range of social organization conventionally studies by sociologists? Applying structural thinking to American election data, it is possible to detect a social-economic hierarchy solely from the links among categories, without reference to external numerical indicators of rank. It is possible to detect and verify sensible and suggestive relative social positions for categories of income, education, gender, age, religion, race, party identification, and region – forming correlated hierarchies. The special contribution of the structural analysis is its simultaneous attention to detail and the overview of links, coupled with less dependence on a priori assumptions.

Exceptions Are the Rule: An Inquiry into Methods in the Social Sciences.

Part 1 Numbers for religion and politics: lines, damned lines and statistics correlations and calculus the rule of safety - gamma is wrong. Part 2 Scatter analysis: big folks and small folks - the relation between height and weight democrats, republicans and independents - what is party identification? friends and relations time and money - the course of human events real mobility theory.