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Yes - except they may not be called "motifs"

Examples:
Start with the work of Moreno and Jennings in the 1930s and 1940s on 
"social configurations"
The dyad census (and the related p1 model of Holland and Leinhardt, 1981)
The triad census of Holland and Leinhardt, and Davis and Leinhardt, 
in the 1970s
Then try all the p* or exponential random graph model work, starting 
with Frank and Strauss (1986)
      including configurations (or "motifs") involving multiple 
networks (Pattison and Wasserman, 1999), also involving actor attributes,
      and the new specifications for these models by Snijders et al, 
shortly to come out in Sociological Methodology

It's a very long tradition, going back way before Science 2002.

Garry Robins




>Has anyone used 'network motifs' in social networks?
>
>ala
>Network Motifs: Simple Building
>Blocks of Complex Networks
>R. Milo,1 S. Shen-Orr,1 S. Itzkovitz,1 N. Kashtan,1 D. Chklovskii,2
>U. Alon1*
>25 OCTOBER 2002 VOL 298 SCIENCE
>
>--
>--------------------------------------------------------
>http://www.paulbhartzog.org
>http://www.panarchy.com
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Dr Garry Robins
Department of Psychology
School of Behavioural Science
University of Melbourne
Victoria 3010
Australia

Tel: 61 3 8344 4454
Fax: 61 3 9347 6618
Web: www.psych.unimelb.edu.au/people/staff/RobinsG.html  

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