Social network

1. A complex set of interrelationships in a social system may be termed a network of social relations. This use of network is however purely metaphorical and is very different from the notion of a social network given below. As a metaphor, the notion of network subsumes, and therefore obscures, several different aspects of social relationships such as connectedness, intensity, status, and role.

2. A specific set of linkages among a defined set of social entities, with the additional property that the characteristics of these linkages as a whole may be used to interpret the social behaviour of the social entities involved.

3. A social network is based on a set of interlinked points. These points need not necessarily be individuals, groups or other collectivities, they may be social status positions, social roles, or myths. The points may be events or intervals of time. Social networks may be composed of several kinds of relationship between several kinds of social entity at several different levels, and including relationships of an entity to itself.