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Encyclopedia of Social Network Analysis and Mining pp 1435–1450Cite as

Nature of Social Structures

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Synonyms

Meaning of social structures; Purpose; Type

Glossary

Pragmatics:

A subfield of linguistics that studies the way in which context contributes to meaning. It is also concerned with the factors that govern our choice of language in social interaction and with the effect of these choices on others. Pragmatics is needed to reach a deeper and more reasonable understanding of human language and, in turn, to grasp the fundamental rules governing social interactions

Social exchange:

The process of transferring nonmaterial resources (e.g., knowledge, affection) between people during social interaction. Individuals contribute to and derive benefits from social structures by means of those exchanges

Social group:

A social aggregation of multiple actors who share a common trait, purpose, or identity and who usually interact with one another. Groups vary greatly in size and type: a small family, a community of fans, or a whole ethnicity can all be considered groups. The boundaries of a...

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Acknowledgments

We thank Bogdan State, Rossano Schifanella, Przemyslaw Grabowicz, David Martin-Borregón, Victor Eguiluz, Alejandro Jaimes, and Ricardo Baeza-Yates for the research work they have conducted jointly with the author and parts of which are summarized in this entry.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nokia Bell Labs, Cambridge, UK

    Luca Maria Aiello

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  1. Luca Maria Aiello
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Correspondence to Luca Maria Aiello .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Reda Alhajj

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Jon Rokne

Section Editor information

  1. Yahoo Inc, London, UK

    Fabrizio Silvestri

  2. University of Calabria, Via Pietro Bucci, 42C, 87036, Arcavacata di Rende, Italy

    Andrea Tagarelli

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Aiello, L.M. (2018). Nature of Social Structures. In: Alhajj, R., Rokne, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Social Network Analysis and Mining. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7131-2_110180

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