Social network analysis as a distinct field of study had its genesis in the anthropological
revolt against structural-functionalism in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was born through
an awareness among a new generation of scholars that structural- functional models failed
to make adequate space for human agency. Attention to personal networks – who knew
whom, and how closely they were connected – seemed better suited to understanding
individual decision-making than the previous generation’s focus on groups and roles. It quickly
became evident that any serious attempt to map social networks of meaningful size – the
population of an entire village, for instance – would all but require a rigorous quantitative
approach…