Demographic Data

In this chapter, we will work with social data to analyze cultural trends spreading across countries and epidemics spreading through the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) student population first introduced in Chapter 2. We’ll see how cultural similarity, geography, and shared social traits create ties between people and places that influence network structure. We’ll also introduce a few important structures commonly found in networks. Finally, we’ll examine how the spread of ideas and disease is influenced by network structure through our cultural trend- and epidemic-spreading examples.

By the end of this chapter, you’ll understand how social factors influence social tie formation, how the spread of ideas and disease is influenced by network structure, and how to spot important features in a plotted network. We’ll build on these ideas in later chapters. For now, let’s look at populations and their defining...