***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.insna.org ***** Ryan, I made my point poorly. I think this would be better: There is no one thing that is Social Network Analysis, leaving it wide open for straw man arguments. Many of us are interested in philosophy, ethnography, psychology and the theory underpinning our ideas of what is real. I have been reading Hayek, Isaiah Berlin (at Mark Granovetter's suggestion), Saint Simon, Marx and others trying to understand the history and arguments for atomic rational individualism. I see networks as an alternative description of individualism that fits the data better. For instance, Ivan Chase's work on hierarchies provides empirical reasons to reject atomic rational individualism as a possible explanation of hierarchies. I consider this all to be subsumed under my view of Social Network Analysis. The implications go far beyond classification. -Don _____________________________________________________________________ SOCNET is a service of INSNA, the professional association for social network researchers (http://www.insna.org). To unsubscribe, send an email message to [log in to unmask] containing the line UNSUBSCRIBE SOCNET in the body of the message.