Dynamic Social Networks

In previous chapters, we’ve considered networks that don’t change over time. Their geometry remains unchanged, and spreading processes and importance metrics calculated on them don’t vary, either. However, this is not the case for many real-world networks, where new connections are forged and old connections break.

In this chapter, we’ll consider networks that change over time and how these changes impact network structure and spreading processes. For instance, within a social network, users can join or deactivate accounts. The strength of their ties can change as they interact with other users’ content. All these actions drive network changes over time, which impact how processes such as information exchange across a network function as hubs appear and disappear or bridges forge across different hubs. We’ll consider simulation data and trial data collected from wildlife observations and hypothetical epidemics spreading...