Social network analysis

Abstract

In general, the paper develops a historiographical debate about the methodology of social network analysis. More than responding questions using such methodology, this article tries to introduce the historian to the founder bibliography of social network analysis. Since the publication of the famous article by John Barnes in 1954, sociologists linked to sociometric studies have usually employed the social network analysis in their studies. On the other hand, this methodology is not widespread among Brazilian historians. Thus, the text undertakes a brief discussion among the main interpretative lines of social network analysis. The aim is to introduce the historian in the methodology of social network analysis and in the bibliography that formed the basis of discussions on the topic. Thus, the text begins with an introduction about the social network analysis, undertakes a more precise discussion on the topic and, in the end, outlines some of the main criticisms suffered by the methodology in question.