Social Sequence Analysis
Methods and Applications

Social Sequence Analysis is a comprehensive guide to analytic methods that brings together foundational, theoretical and methodological work on social sequences.

Benjamin Cornwell (Author)

9781107500549, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 6 August 2015

333 pages, 41 b/w illus. 8 tables
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.46 kg

'Social Sequence Analysis beautifully links two of the major revolutionary developments in social science over the past three decades - networks and sequences - to make sense of the deeply ordered nature of social life. Cornwell stops at every station along what is arguably the most important pathway for gaining insight into the social world with elegant methodological contributions that should change how we do social science.' Peter Bearman, Cole Professor of Social Science, Columbia University

Social sequence analysis includes a diverse and rapidly growing body of methods that social scientists have developed to help study complex ordered social processes, including chains of transitions, trajectories and other ordered phenomena. Social sequence analysis is not limited by content or time scale and can be used in many different fields, including sociology, communication, information science and psychology. Social Sequence Analysis aims to bring together both foundational and recent theoretical and methodological work on social sequences from the last thirty years. A unique reference book for a new generation of social scientists, this book will aid demographers who study life-course trajectories and family histories, sociologists who study career paths or work/family schedules, communication scholars and micro-sociologists who study conversation, interaction structures and small-group dynamics, as well as social epidemiologists.

Part I. Introduction: 1. Sequence analysis in the social sciences
Part II. Theoretical Background: 2. Theoretical foundations of social sequence analysis
Part III. Social Sequence Analysis Concepts and Techniques: 3. Sequence analysis concepts and data
4. Detecting sequence structure
5. Whole-sequence comparison methods
Part IV. New Directions in Social Sequence Analysis: 6. Network methods for sequence analysis
7. Social microsequence analysis
Part V. Conclusions: 8. The promise of social sequence analysis.

Subject Areas: Population & demography [JHBD], Social research & statistics [JHBC], Sociology & anthropology [JH], Research methods: general [GPS]