Social Sequence Analysis: Methods and Applications

by Benjamin Cornwell

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781107500549
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	08/06/2015
Series:	Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences , #37
Pages:	333
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.71(d)

About the Author

Benjamin Cornwell is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Cornell University, New York. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Chicago. His research has been published in journals such as the American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review and Social Forces. His work has been covered in many media outlets, including CNN, the New York Times, MSNBC and the Los Angeles Times. In 2012, he taught one of the first graduate courses on social sequence analysis in the United States at Cornell University. He has most recently been awarded the 2017 Leo Goodman Award for Outstanding Early Career Researcher.

Table of Contents

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.

Editorial Reviews

"Social Sequence Analysis is the first comprehensive conceptual, theoretical, and methodological overview of an important and interdisciplinary research paradigm. Essential reading for researchers in sociology and related social sciences."
Andrew Abbott, Gustavus F. and Ann M. Swift Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago

"Social Sequence Analysis is a must-read book for anyone interested in the temporal unfolding of social events. Taking up the charge first raised by Andrew Abbott many years ago, this book provides a careful and detailed examination of the history and theoretical grounding of sequence methods in the social sciences. This book provides the tools needed to think about social sequences in a grounded, pragmatic fashion in a way that opens new doors for social theory. Well written, clearly argued, and filled with practical guides, this is a methods text for all thinking social scientists."
James Moody, Robert O. Keohane Professor of Sociology, Duke University

"Social Sequence Analysis: Methods and Applications offers the first comprehensive look at sequence analysis for the social sciences. It provides useful guidance into the different families of statistical methods adapted to sequences that emerged in the social sciences a couple of decades ago. Benjamin Cornwell has written a much-needed book that should prove invaluable to social scientists interested in sequence analysis."
Laurent Lesnard, CNRS Professor of Sociology, Sciences Po, France

"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

From the Publisher