The Social Network Analysis in Scotland group (SNAS) provides a forum to discuss projects, issues and ideas related to Social Network Analysis (SNA).
It aims to:
- Promote and facilitate knowledge exchange and collaboration with regard to SNA;
- Bring together academic staff, postgraduate students and practitioners engaging with SNA across Scotland and beyond;
- Produce high quality and collaborative research using SNA.
We welcome anyone with an interest in or experience of applying SNA to research projects and real-life problems. Previous SNAS activities include SNA seminars and lectures, basic and advanced training on SNA theory, methods and databases, presentations of group members work-in-progress and journal club events.
The group is currently convened by:
- Cristina Chueca Del Cerro (University of Durham)
- Srebrenka Letina (Limerick University)
- Katharina Pruente (University of Stirling)
- Yasaman Sarabi (Heriot-Watt University)
- Matjaz Vidmar (University of Edinburgh)
- Gil Viry (University of Edinburgh)
- Chamil Rathnayake (University of Strathclyde)
If you would like to join our mailing list and receive regular updates of SNAS and SNA-related events and information, please visit our Jiscmail webpage to subscribe.
Monthly Seminars
SNAS also organises monthly seminar series, which consist of a range of presentations from SNAS members and external speakers on their SNAS work. Individuals from all backgrounds and levels are welcomed to attend.
The monthly seminar is scheduled on a Tuesday, from October to June, 16:00-17:00 UK time (unless stated otherwise, see calendar for the programme, click on right top corner “Agenda” view for easier navigation).
We are continuing a hybrid delivery for all of the talks in 2025-26.
All are welcome to attend, and no registration will be needed. Further details for each talk, along with the link to join online, will be circulated closer to each talk’s date through the SNAS mailing list.
SNA Hub
SNAS has recently developed an Open Moodle page (open to the public) called the Social Network Analysis (SNA) Hub. The SNA Hub aims to act as a resource hub for anyone starting out with SNA. It provides an overview of some methods and metrics, along with short introduction/taster videos to relevant software packages for SNA and Network Science. It should be a particularly useful resource for PhD students and early-career researchers interested in SNA. To access the resources of the SNA Hub, you just need to sign up for an Edinburgh Napier University Open Moodle account.
To access the Open Moodle platform: https://open.napier.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=40
Details and instructions on how to enrol on the SNA Hub page: https://blogs.napier.ac.uk/rie/thinking-about-using-social-network-analysis-try-the-sna-hub/
Past seminars
2020-2021
- 20 October 2020 – You’ll never move alone’: Rethinking teacher turnover as inter-school mobility networks
Marc Sarazin, UCLouvain
Recording of the seminar is available here. - 24 November 2020 – Evolution of Guanxi within Chinese Large-scale Exhibition Service Market
Yehui Hu, University of Greenwich - 15 December 2020 – Analysing disease transmission in networks
Trystan Leng, University of Warwick - 2 February 2021 – SNAS PhD Surgery (round table)
- 23 February 2021 – On Multilayer Networks in the Netherlands
Tom Emery, ODISSEI, Netherlands
A recording of this seminar is available here. - 23 March 2021 – Old People’s Personal Networks in Europe: The importance of sibling ties
Jingyi Wang, University of Edinburgh - 27 April 2021 – Oliver Westerwinter on Modelling Networks of International Organizations in So-called Regime Complexes
Benhard Reinsberg, University of Glagsow
2021-2022
- 12 October 2021 – Tracing the displacement of Edinburgh’s Cowgate: using social networks to identify the hidden legacies of Little Ireland
Donagh Horgan, University of Strathclyde
Recording of the seminar is available here - 9 November 2021 – Use of network maps in the characterization and improvement of vulnerable communities in the global south
Aisha Abubakar, University of Strathclyde
Recording of the seminar is available here - 14 December 2021 – Hidden inequalities: using position generators to capture gender gaps on micro-tasking platforms
Paola Tubaro, National Centre for Scientific Research, CNRS
Recording of the seminar is available here - 8 February 2022 – Multilevel networks in transnational institution building: The case of the European Unified Patent Court
Emmanuel Lazega, Centre for the Sociology of Organisations, Sciences Po
Recording of the seminar is available here - 8 March 2022 – Twitter networks, bridging nodes, and issue-mapping on rare diseases
Matthew Hanchard, University of Sheffield, UK
Recording of the seminar is available here - 12 April 2022 – Understanding scientific disagreement
Dakota Murray, The Center for Complex Network Research (CCNR), Northeastern University, USA
Recording of the seminar is available here
2022-2023
- 10 May 2022 – Citizenship Regimes: dynamics of scientific polarisation or consensus in the field
Eva Fernández G. G., University of Geneva, Switzerland - 20th September 2022 – A three-dimensional approach to studying brokerage in networks: Brokerage activity, exclusivity and role diversity
Per Becker, Lund University, Sweden, preceded by a Welcome Event with short presentations by the SNAS committee - Tuesday 18th October 2022 –
Scientific cooperation dynamics in Svalbard: a core-periphery analysis
Marion Maisonobe, Géographie‐cités, National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France - Tuesday 18th October 2022 –Measures and stakes about the betweenness centrality of romantic partners in personal networks
Claire Bidart LEST, National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Aix Marseille Univ, France
Recording of the seminar is available here - Tuesday 15th November – Loneliness, Mental Health, and Social Networks – UK evidence and future recommendations
Emily Long, University of Glasgow, UK - Tuesday 6th December 2022 – Retweets as endorsements: identifying advocacy coalitions with retweet network data
Paul Wagner, Edinburgh Napier University, UK
Recording of the seminar is available here - Tuesday 17th January 2023 – Mapping communication networks of retrofitting supply chains
Yujia Han and Faye Wade, University of Edinburgh, UK - Tuesday 28th March 2023 – Net4Health: Social networks and adolescent health
Mark McCann, University of Glasgow, UK
Recording of the seminar is available here (password: p9hsb7S*) - Tuesday 18th April 2023 – In search of network efficiency: hybrid workplace and its impact on knowledge network churn
Paola Zappa, UCL, UK
Recording of the seminar is available here - Tuesday 16th May 2023 – Optimising cooperation in the industrial decarbonisation research landscape
Matthew Smith, Edinburgh Napier, UK
2023-2024
- Tuesday 19th September 2023 – NodeXL to analyse social media networks: an overview of research case studies
Wasim Ahmed, University of Stirling, UK & Dennis O’Keeffe, Loughborough University, UK
Following a Welcome Event with short presentations by the SNAS committee - Tuesday 24th October 2023 – Keep your leader close: A multilevel investigation of advice networks, identification, and change responses
Francesca Pallotti, University of Greenwich, UK - Tuesday 14th November 2023 – Making sense of teachers’ communities of practice (CoP) with social (SNA) and epistemic (ENA) network analysis
Barbara Dzieciatko- Szendrei, University of Edinburgh, UK - Tuesday 12th December 2023 – Bursts of communication increase opinion diversity in the temporal Deffuant model
Luis Rocha, Ghent University, Belgium - Tuesday 16th January 2024 – Mapping and analysing networks in community projects
Drew Mackie (Industry)
Recording of the seminar is available here
Presentation slides and additional NetMapping examples are available here - Tuesday 20th February 2024 – Trust Networks as Data. The Journey Ahead
Silvia Fierăscu, West University of Timișoara, Romania
Recording of the seminar is available here - Tuesday 19th March 2024 – That’s What Friends Are For: Anxious and Avoidant Attachment, Workplace Friendship and Job Performance
Zexi (Flavia) Li, University of Exeter, UK
Recording of the seminar is available here - Tuesday 16th April 2024 – Theorizing and mapping media ownership networks in authoritarian-populist contexts: a comparative analysis of Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, and Turkey
Gerhard Schnyder, Loughborough University London, UK
Recording of the seminar is available here - Tuesday 14th May 2024 – Symbolic interactionism as a theoretical perspective for qualitative network analysis
Laura Behrmann, University of Wuppertal, Germany
Recording of the seminar is available here
2024-2025
- Tuesday 17th September 2024 – Global Value Chain Disruption from Container Logistics and Economic Growth: Evidence from the United States
Eric Neuyou, University of Arkansas (USA)
Recording of the seminar is available here - Tuesday 8th October 2024 – Network Analysis of French Multinationals : between resilience to shocks and adaptation to globalization
Charlie Joyez, Université Côte d’Azur (France) - Tuesday 12th November 2024 – Partner selection strategies and participation dynamics in EU collaborative research projects: A network-based approach
Andrea Ancona, Sapienza University of Rome (Italy) - Tuesday 10th December 2024 – Satellite networks, social dynamics, and the consensus protocol to bind them
Agathe Bouis, University of Strathclyde (UK) - Tuesday 28th January 2025 – Understanding the Mechanisms that Drive Relational Events Dynamics and Structure in Corruption Networks
Tomas Diviak, University of Manchester (UK)
Recording of the seminar is available here - Tuesday 11th February 2025 – Resilience and Competitiveness in the Electric Vehicle Industry: A Global Corporate Network Analysis
Zsofia Baruwa, University of Kent (UK)
Recording of the seminar is available here - Tuesday 11th March 2025 – Multimorbidity patterns and early signals of diabetes in online communities
Zhen Zhu, University of Kent (UK) - Tuesday 13th May 2025 – Tracing the Network Continuity from the Socialist to the Communist Women’s Movement (1906-1920)
Minja Bujakovic, European University Institute (Italy)
2025-2026
- Tuesday 14th October 2025 – A social network analysis of stakeholders involved with markets for organic and naturally farmed foods and beverages in India
Alexandra Sadler, University of Edinburgh (UK) - Tuesday 11th November 2025 – The architecture of agreement: using bipartite networks to model shared identities and social group structure
Paul Maher, University of Limerick (Ireland)
Recording of the seminar is available here - Tuesday 9th December 2025 – Layering Network Analysis: The Geographical Approach
Matjaz Vidmar, University of Edinburgh (UK)
Past Events and Projects
Social Network Analysis Project (SNAP)
Funded by the College of Humanities and Social Science (CHSS) through the 2014-2015 Challenge Investment Fund, SNAP aimed to establish SNAS as a leading research and training unit in the development and application of cross-disciplinary SNA in Scotland and beyond. Find out more about the project.
Workshop on online social networks and big data, and lecture on privacy of online social networks
This workshop, delivered by Dr. Jordi Herrera and Cristina Prez-Sol (Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain), provided hands-on training on extracting and analysing data from Online Social Networks, like Twitter and Facebook. Online Social Networks (OSNs) have gained an important space in peoples lives. Their popularity and the fact that OSNs provide a breadth of data about human interaction have made them an increasingly popular research topic.This workshop covered the following topics:
- How to interact with OSN providers in order to obtain data from OSN sites (e.g. via Application Programming Interfaces, Representational State Transfer and Oauth);
- How to collect data from social networking sites such as Twitter or Facebook; How toconvert OSN data to standard network formats;
- How to acquire OSN data in real time, and visualise results.
Public lecture on privacy of online social networks
Dr. Jordi Herrerawill gave a public lecture on Privacy of Online Social Networks on Monday 27th April 2015 from 16:00 – 18:00. The lecture took place in G.07 Meadows Lecture Theatre – Doorway 4 (Medical School, Teviot), University of Edinburgh, George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LD
Workshop on qualitative and quantitative network analysis using R., focusing on ego networks
The Social Network Analysis in Scotland Group (SNAS) and Project (SNAP) in collaboration with the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit (SPHSU) ran a full-day workshop on qualitative and quantitative network analysis using R, with a specific focus on ego networks.
Public lecture on transnational social support and migration: conflicts in personal networks
Tuesday 31st March 2015 – 12:00-14:00
Seminar Room 2, Chrystal Macmillan Building, University of Edinburgh
Speaker: Dr. Andreas Herz, University Hildesheim, Germany
Public lecture by Ichiro Kawachi: Social capital and health
The Social Network Analysis in Scotland Group (SNAS) in collaboration with the CRESH and OpenSpace at ECA ran a public lecture on: “Social Capital and Health”, with focus on the resources accessed through social networks. The event was delivered by Professor Ichiro Kawachi from the Harvard School of Public Health, USA. Kawachis’ research interested in the in the social determinants of population health and health disparities, he has made seminal contributions to the link between health and social capital; the resources accessed through social networks.
Advanced SNA theories and methods with Prof. Nick Crossley: half-day workshop and public lecture
A half-day workshop on advanced SNA theories and methods with Professor Nick Crossley from the University of Manchester. Nick Crossley is a Professor at the University of Manchester and one of the UK’s most eminent social network analysts. He co-founded the Mitchell Centre for Social Network Analysis and has contributed to the theory, methods and applications of social network analysis, in various areas such as social movement and protest, and (popular) music scenes The workshop topics included:
- Mixed methods: How to combine qualitative and quantitative SNA?
- Two-mode networks: How to analyse simultaneously micro (people, households) and macro social structures (groups, boards of directors, social events) in which people are embedded?
- Comparing networks: How to compare networks of different structure and nature? How to analyse change in networks?.
SNAS - Social Network Analysis in Scotland 