ENSb1315 Network analysis: social, ecological, and social-ecological approaches

Faculty of Social Studies
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
0/0/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Yanhua Shi, M.A. (lecturer)
Harald Waxenecker, MA (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
Christian Kimmich, Ph.D., M.Sc.
Department of Environmental Studies – Faculty of Social Studies
Contact Person: Mgr. Kateřina Hendrychová
Supplier department: Faculty of Social Studies
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives (in Czech)
This course introduces the students to qualitative and quantitative network analysis and its interdisciplinary applications in institutional analysis, political economy and ecology, social-ecological economics, international relations, among others Social Network Analysis (SNA), Ecological Network AnalysiS (ENA) , and Social-Ecological Network Analysis (SENA) will be introduced. The students will understand the basics of network analysis across disciplines and be prepared to transfer parts of the acquired knowledge to cases of their own interest.
Learning outcomes (in Czech)
After this course participants will have gathered a basic understanding of the concepts of network analysis and its applications across disciplines. The students will understand the fundamental network theories, concepts and ideas; be able to carry out network visualization and basic network descriptive analysis through taught software, and understand basics of simple statistical models; be able to transfer and apply the acquired knowledge to a self-selected case.
Syllabus (in Czech)
  • 1. Introduction: overview of network analysis across disciplines, course outline, relevance, and applications.
  • 2. Basic network concepts and ideas: basics of research design, network elements, network structures, network centralities, network models.
  • 3. Social Network Analysis
  • 4. Ecological Network Analysis.
  • 5. Social-Ecological Network Analysis. 6. Networks of Action Situations and Social-Ecological Action Situations.
  • 7. Introduction to network analysis software: Pajek, Gephi, and Rstudio, focusing on visualization, basic network descriptives, and simple statistical models.
  • 8. Group work presentation and discussion on applications selected by the students.
  • 9. final discussion and reflections of the course
Literature
    recommended literature
  • Carmichael T, & Hadžikadić M. (2019). The fundamentals of complex adaptive systems. In: Carmichael T, Collins A, & Hadžikadić M, (editors). Complex adaptive systems: Views from the physical, natural, and social sciences. Switzerland: Springer Nature; p.
  • Voutsa Venetia, Battaglia Demian, Bracken Louise J., Brovelli Andrea, Costescu Julia, Díaz Muñoz Mario, Fath Brian D., Funk Andrea, Guirro Mel, Hein Thomas, Kerschner Christian, Kimmich Christian, Lima Vinicius, Messé Arnaud, Parsons Anthony J., Perez Jo
  • McGinnis, M. D. (2011). Networks of adjacent action situations in polycentric governance. Policy studies journal, 39(1), 51-78.
  • Sayama, H. (2015). Introduction to the modeling and analysis of complex systems. New York: Open SUNY Textbooks
  • Miller RE, Blair PD. (2009). Input–output analysis: foundations and extensions. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
  • Scott J (2003). Social Network Analysis: A Handbook. 3rd. Sage Publications, 2003
  • Schlüter, M., Haider, L. J., Lade, S. J., Lindkvist, E., Martin, R., Orach, K., ... & Folke, C. (2019). Capturing emergent phenomena in social-ecological systems. Ecology and Society, 24(3).
  • Chen S, Chen B. (2015). Urban energy consumption: different insights from energy flow analysis, input– output analysis and ecological network analysis. Appl. Energy 138, 99–107. (doi:10.1016/j.apenergy. 2014.10.055)
  • Fiscus, D. A., & Fath, B. D. (2018). Foundations for Sustainability: A Coherent Framework of Life–Environment Relations. Academic Press.
  • Boccaletti, S., Latora, V., Moreno, Y., Chavez, M., & Hwang, D. U. (2006). Complex networks: Structure and dynamics. Physics reports, 424(4-5), 175-308.
  • Turnbull, L., Hütt, M.T., Ioannides, A.A., Kininmonth, S., Poeppl, R., Tockner, K., Bracken, L.J., Keesstra, S., Liu, L., Masselink, R., Parsons, A.J. (2018). Connectivity and complex systems: learning from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Applied Netwo
  • Prell Ch (2011). Social Network Analysis: History, Theory and Methodology. Social Network Analysis, 1-272
  • Sayles J S, Mancilla García M S, Hamilton M, Alexander S M, Baggio J A, Fischer A P, Ingold K, Meredith G R & Pittmann J (2019). Social-ecological network analysis for sustainability sciences: a systematic review and innovative research agenda for the fu
  • Bodin, Ö., Robins, G., McAllister, R. R. J., Guerrero, A. M., Crona, B., Tengö, M., & Lubell, M. (2016). Theorizing benefits and constraints in collaborative environmental governance: a transdisciplinary social-ecological network approach for empirical i
  • BARABÁSI, Albert-László and Márton PÓSFAI. Network science. First published. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016, xviii, 456. ISBN 9781107076266. info
    not specified
  • Wasserman S & Faust K (1994). Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications. Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences. Cambridge University Press.
Teaching methods (in Czech)
Lectures and group exercises with short presentations and discussion.
Assessment methods (in Czech)
Essay (50%) and presentation (50%)
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
The course is taught: every week.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2025, recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/fss/spring2025/ENSb1315