Networks: Basic Concepts

Centrality

Networks: Basic Concepts

In this discussion, well outline some basic concepts of network

analysis, focusing on centrality.

Well also fold into this discussion an overview of UCINET. UCINET is

a software program that is commonly used with network analysis.
While it does not handle some of the more recent ways in which
networks can be analyzed (such as longitudinal or cross-sectional
ERGM methods), it is a very user friendly way to obtain networkrelated measures, and to create visual depictions of networks.
UCINET offers a free 30 day trial.

Much of the discussion of UCINET was drawn from the tutorial created
by Hanneman at Riverside.

Basic concepts

Recallvertices or nodes are the units or actors in a

network (or a graph or a system).

Edges are the ties or connections between nodes.

And the ego is the node under considerationany

particular node that you might be thinking of.

Basic Concepts: Centrality

Centrality

is a measure of how many

connections one node has to other nodes.

Degree

centrality refers to the number of ties

a node has to other nodes. Actors who have
more ties may have multiple alternative ways
and resources to reach goalsand thus be
relatively advantaged.

Basic Concepts: Degree Centrality

Degree

centrality for an undirected graph is

straightforwardif A is connected to B, then
B is by definition connected to A.

Degree

centrality for a directed graph or

network has one of two forms.

Degree CentralityDirected Networks

One is in-degree centrality: An actor who receives

many ties, they are characterized as prominent.
The basic idea is that many actors seek to direct ties
to themand so this may be regarded as a measure
of importance.
The other is out-degree centrality. Actors who have
high out-degree centrality may be relatively able to
exchange with others, or disperse information quickly
to many others. (Recall the strength of weak ties
argument.) So actors with high out-degree centrality
are often characterized as influential.

Degree Centrality: Individual and Network

Consider the network on the

left. Which nodes (actors) are
more central than others?

2, 5, and 7 appear relatively

central.

Degree Centrality (directed networks)

So, node 7 has an in-degree centrality absolute value of 9 (there

are 9 other nodes connected to node 7). The normalized value is
100 (all possible other nodes are connected to node 7). The outdegree centrality has an absolute value of 3 (node 7 is connected
out to nodes 2, 4, and 5), and a normalized value of 33.33 (3
nodes is 33.33% of the possible 9 nodes to which node 7 could
extend out.)

The average outdegree is 4.9 (which means that each node

has, on average, connections out to 4.9 other nodes); the
average indegree is also 4.9. Normalized, both measures are
54.44 (that is, 4.9 / 9).

Centrality: Network Degree

Centralization

One can also calculate network indegree and

outdegree centralization. These network measures
represent the degree of inequality or variance in our
network as a percentage of that in a perfect star
network the most unequal type of network.

A depiction of a star network is on the next slide

note that only one node is connected to any of the
others, and that node is connected to all of the
others.

Star Network

Degree Centrality: Bonacich

Another measure of degree centrality takes into account the

problem that the power and centrality of each node (actor)
depends on the power and centrality of the others.
Bonacich used an iterative estimation approach which weights
each nodes centrality by the centrality of the other nodes to
which it is connected.
So, node 1s centrality depends not only on how many
connections it hasbut also on how many connections its
neighbors have (and on how many connections its neighbors
neighbors have, and so on.)

Degree Centrality: Bonacich

When calculating out the Bonacich Power measures, the

attenuation factor represents the weightan attenuation
factor that is positive (between 0 and 1) means that ones
power is enhanced by being connected to well-connected
neighbors.

Alternatively, one could argue that actors who are wellconnected to individuals who are not well-connected
themselves are powerful, because others are dependent on
them. In this case, one would use an negative attenuation
factor (between 0 and -1), to compute power accordingly.

Degree Centrality: Bonacich

Recall the graph presented above, in which actors

#5 and #2 were the most central. Calculating out
Bonacich measures suggests that actors #8 and #10
are also centralthey dont have many connections,
but they have the right connections.
However, taking the second approach (using a
negative attenuation factor) identifies actors 3, 7, and
9 as being strong because they have weak
neighbors (who are dependent on them).

Degree Centrality: Bonacich

As

with all quantitative methods, its

important to think about what you as a
researcher are trying to measure before
using the methods. In your particular
context, are actors connected with other wellconnected actors the most powerful? Or is it
actors that are connected with those who are
very dependent on them who are more
powerful?

Centrality: Closeness Centrality

Closeness is a measure of the degree to which an

individual is near all other individuals in a network. It
is the inverse of the sum of the shortest distances
between each node and every other node in the
network.
Closeness is the reciprocal of farness.
Nearness can also be standardized by norming it
against the minimum possible nearness for a graph
of the same size and connection.

Centrality: Closeness Centrality

Closeness can also be calculated as a measure of inequality in

the distribution of distances across the actors.

These measures rely on the sum of the geodesic distances

from each actor to all the others. However, in complicated
graphs, this can be misleading.

An actor can be very close to a relatively closed subset of a

networkor moderately close to every actor in a large network
and receive the same closeness score. In reality, the two are
very different.

Centrality: Eigenvector Closeness

The

Eigenvector approach to measuring

closeness uses a factor analytic procedure to
discount closeness to small local
subnetworks.

Closeness: Influence Measures

Another

way to think of closeness is to move

away from thinking just about the geodesic or
most efficient (shortest) path from one node
to anotherbut to also think about all
connections of ego (that is, the one node in
question) to all the others.

Closeness: Influence Measures

There are several such measures: Hubbell, Katz,

Taylor, Stephenson, and Zelen.

Hubbell and Katz methods count the total number of

connections between actors (and do not distinguish
between directed and non-directed data), but use an
attenuation factor to discount longer paths. The two
measures are very similar; the Katz measure uses
an identity matrix (each node is connected to itself)
while the Hubbell measure does not.

Closeness: Influence Measures

The

Taylor measure also uses an attenuation

factor, but is more useful for measuring the
balance of in- versus out-ties in directed
graphs. Positive values of closeness indicate
relatively more out-ties than in-ties.

Centrality: Actor Betweenness

BetweennessBetweenness is a measure of the

extent to which a node is connected to other nodes
that are not connected to each other. Its a measure
of the degree to which a node serves as a bridge.

This measure can be calculated in absolute value, as

well as in terms of a normed percentage of the
maximum possible betweenness that an actor or
node could have had.

Centrality: Edge Betweenness

In addition to calculating betweenness measures for

actors, we can also calculate betweenness
measures for edges.

Edge betweenness is the degree to which an edge

makes other connections possible.

Recall the Knoke example we used earlier, and look

at the edge from 3 to 6.

Centrality: Edge Betweenness

Centrality: Edge Betweenness

That

edge from 3 to 6 makes many other

edges possiblewithout that edge, 6 would
be relatively isolated.

Centrality: Levels of Hierarchy

One can also identify levels of hierarchy. If one

eliminates all the actors with no betweenness (that
is, the subordinates), some of the remaining actors
will then have 0 betweennessthey are at the
second level of the hierarchy. We can continue to
remove actors, and measure the # of levels of
hierarchy exist in the network or system.

Note that the Knoke data presented above is not

very hierarchical.

Centrality: Flow Betweenness

What if two actors want to have a relationship, but

the path between them is blocked by a reluctant
intermediary? Another pathwayeven if it is longer
means another alternative / resource. The flow
approach to centrality assumes that actors will use
all the pathways that connect them. For each actor,
the measure reflects the # of times the actor is in a
flow (any flow) between all other pairs of actors
(generally, as a ratio of the total flow betweenness
that does not involve the actor).

Basic Concepts
This

has been an overview of various

perspectives on centrality, largely drawn from
the UCINET tutorial. The UCINET tutorial
also has a number of very useful review
questions.