Dynamical Social Networks

The classical field of social network analysis (SNA) considers societies and social groups as networks, assembled of social actors (individuals, groups or organizations) and relationships among them, or social ties. From the systems and control perspective, a social network may be considered as a complex dynamical system where an actor’s attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors related to them evolve under the influence of the other actors. As a result of these local interactions, complex dynamical behaviors arise that depend on both individual characteristics of actors and the structural properties of a network. This entry provides basic concepts and theoretical tools elaborated to study dynamical social networks. We focus on (a) structural properties of networks and (b) dynamical processes over them, e.g., dynamics of opinion formation.