Networks in Scientific and Cultural Fields: The Interplay of Cognitive and Social Structure in Biomedical Research, Music, and Filmmaking

Abstract:

Networks of collaboration and recognition are important for understanding the social antecedents of creativity and knowledge creation in various domains. Past accounts illustrated that the network positions of individuals and teams are crucial for their success and creativity. For instance, scientists who establish a bridge between disconnected clusters of researchers or secure collaborations with prestigious scientists have a higher scientific impact.
However, less work investigates how the co-evolution of cognitive content and social processes embedded in scientific and cultural fields changes over time or differs between contexts. In this talk, I will illustrate how statistical network models and deep-learning techniques allow scholars to test theoretical expectations regarding the interplay between cognitive and social structure in scientific and cultural fields at scale.
To give an example application of this framework, I will discuss why certain social processes, such as high levels of inequality in the distribution of network partners, should be linked to decreasing diversity in the cognitive content produced by a field. For instance, I will argue that scientific fields marked by elites attracting disproportionate shares of collaborators and citations should show less diverse research content than more egalitarian fields. Building on previous work that analyzes network structures among scientists, musicians, and filmmakers, I will provide tentative evidence for a negative relationship between network inequality and cognitive diversity and sketch directions for future research.