Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Evil-Doers at Sunbelt in San Diego

Tomorrow I fly to San Diego to attend Sunbelt, the annual SNA extravaganza.

The keynote address, by Phillip Bonacich, is "Using Social Networks for Evil":
"Many uses of the network approach in sociology involve pro-social behavior.... Yet, individuals use the networks they are involved in for their own selfish and malign purposes....

"As those who have studied social dilemmas have demonstrated, anti-social behavior can be fun and profitable.

"What I wish to explore in this talk is one form of anti-social behavior, one that I have been thinking about recently - the exploitation of the weak and dependent in networks of social exchange and violations of the norm of reciprocity."
I am looking forward to hearing more about that! And perhaps I will meet some of you (readers) in San Diego this week.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a great theme for the conference. Sorry I missed it.

Anonymous said...

Seems like a great topic. I wish I had been there. Better go next year.