Centered graphs and the structure of ego networks

This essay is about a special kind of social networks called ego networks. Like other networks, they are made up of social units persons, groups or organizations and social relations like marriage or friendship that Iink pairs of units into some sort of overall patterned structure. Ego networks, however, are special in that they are built around a particular social unit designated a!, ego. To uncover an ego network you begin by choosing some social unit as ego. You then define a symmetric social relation or combination or relations and determine all the other units with whom ego has the relation. Finally, you note all pairs among those other units who are directly connected by the relation. The result is a mini-network or immediate neighborhood surroundtng ego that can, perhaps, reveal something important about the social world from ego’s perspective. We might guess, for example, that if the social units are persons, those in the ego network are the ones that have the greatest impact on ego’s attitudes, norms, values, goals and perceptions of the world. Moreover, those are the ones to whom ego must turn to seek information, help and support. In some sense, then, an ego network is a map of ego’s personal social world. It shows something about hokf that ego is tied in to the larger human society. Bstt (1957) first called attention to the importance of such ego networks. She called them social networks and reasoned that to the extent that ego was involved