Micro- and macromodels of social networks. I. Theory fundamentals

Abstract

We consider two approaches to the design and analysis of social networks, namely, macro- and microdescriptions. According to the former approach, the structure of relations in a social network is averaged, and agents’ behavior is studied “in the mean.” The latter approach takes into account the structural features of the influence graph of agents and their individual decision-making principles. The first and second approaches are compared using the threshold model of collective behavior with a common relative threshold.