Valdis Krebs, a social network analyst, responds to Dave Snowden’s posts on Cognitive Edge. Krebs believes that Snowden’s critique of social network analysis (SNA) is too harsh and misinformed. He argues that Snowden misunderstands the purpose of SNA, which is not to predict future relationships but to understand the existing network structure.
Krebs also takes issue with Snowden’s claim that SNA is overly simplistic and deterministic. He asserts that SNA does not claim to predict individual behaviour but instead focuses on the influence of the network structure on potential behaviour. Krebs emphasises that SNA is not deterministic but probabilistic, providing insight into the likelihood of certain behaviours or events.
Snowden’s assertion that SNA is reductionist is also challenged by Krebs. He points out that SNA does not reduce complex systems to simple nodes and links but rather uses these as representations to better understand the system.
Finally, Krebs refutes Snowden’s claim that SNA ignores the role of narrative. He argues that narratives can be incorporated into SNA, and that the two approaches are not mutually exclusive. He suggests that combining SNA with narrative approaches can lead to richer insights.
Go to source article: https://www.cognitive-edge.com/valdis-response-to-daves-recent-posts/