***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.insna.org ***** Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________ S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Department of Sociology 725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388 University of Toronto Toronto Canada M5S 2J4 twitter:barrywellman http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-3963 Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _______________________________________________________________________ ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2010 17:04:35 +0100 From: [log in to unmask] Reply-To: [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask] To: [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask] Cc: [log in to unmask] Subject: [bms-rc33] Call - PhD Positions with ICS (Groningen, Netherlands) Thanks to Christian Steglich Deadline: 15 January 2011 Dear colleagues, As part of its annual recruitment and selection procedure for PhD-students, the Interuniversity Center for Social Science Theory and Methodology (ICS) in the Netherlands is looking for excellent candidates for a couple of four-year-long PhD projects on several network-related topics. In particular, we are looking for candidates interested in the following projects in statistical network analysis: Project "Statistical Models for Three-Way Network Data" Examples of three-way social processes are gossip (where two people choose a third person, an ´object´ to talk about), informal mediation (where a colleague might entrust a problem with another colleague to a third colleague, who acts as mediator to solve the problem), or social cognitive maps (where actors in a dyadic network report their perceptions of the whole network). While in dyadic network data actors have two roles, as 'sender' and 'receiver', in triadic observations they have a third role, for instance as 'object' (of gossip), as 'mediator' (of problems with colleagues), or as 'observer' (of dyadic relations). While older work (Krackhardt, 1987) focused on how to summarize triadic data to obtain a dyadic network, such data reduction implies a potentially severe loss of information. So far, not much work has been done to develop statistical models for three-way data (see Bond & Kenny, 2002, for an exception). This project focuses on the development of appropriate statistical models to handle the richness of this type of data. Project "Validity of Models for Network Structure and Social Influence Processes" In the past decade, the analysis of social networks with statistical models has developed rapidly with the availability of new estimation methods, using advanced computational techniques, coupled with new insights in the complex structure of social network data. On the one hand, these are models explaining the shape of networks as such, i.e., the interdependencies between the network actors. On the other hand, there are models using networks to explain other phenomena, such as (change in) status, performance, or peer influence. Many new methods and models have been proposed, one of them being stochastic actor-based modeling ("SIENA"), proposed by the project initiators. However, there are hardly any studies comparing the different approaches.As a consequence, the demarcation of the conclusions that can reliably be drawn with the available methods remains an open question and guidelines for the selection of appropriate analytical methods are lacking. This project aims to fill these gaps. The two projects will be supervised by Christian Steglich, Marijtje van Duijn, Mark Huisman, and Tom Snijders. The recruitment and selection procedure for our scholarships started December 11, 2010. Applications, online only, should be delivered through the ICS website before January 15, 2011. The interviews will be conducted on March 3, 4, 8 and 9, 2011. More details, also about the other available positions, can be found via the website http://www.ics-graduateschool.nl/vacancies/ We very much appreciate your interest and cooperation, Christian Steglich, Marijtje van Duijn, Mark Huisman, Tom Snijders on behalf of Rafael Wittek, Scientific Director ICS Christian Steglich, researcher Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences University of Groningen Grote Rozenstraat 31 9712 TG Groningen The Netherlands fon +31-(0)50-363 6189 fax +31-(0)50-363 6226 http://www.gmw.rug.nl/~steglich/ >> Consider submitting your methodologically interesting articles to the BMS << ******************************************************************************** * * Karl M. van Meter BMS, Bulletin de Methodologie Sociologique * [log in to unmask] Bulletin of Sociological Methodology) * tel 33 (0)1 40 51 85 19 http://bms.sagepub.com/ * distribution list [log in to unmask] * free distribution list [log in to unmask] * BMS-AIMS RC33, Research Committee Logic & * 45 rue Linné Methodology of the International * 75005 Paris, France Sociological Association (ISA) * http://ens.academia.edu/KarlMvanMeter ******************************************************************************** _____________________________________________________________________ SOCNET is a service of INSNA, the professional association for social network researchers (http://www.insna.org). 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