Douglas R. White
Douglas R. White (born in 1942) is an American
anthropologist,
sociologist, and
social network researcher.
Born in
Minneapolis, White attended the
University of Michigan,
Columbia University, and
University of Minnesota, where he received a
B.A. in
1964, a
M.A. in
1967, and a
Ph.D. degree in
1969 from the
University of Minnesota. He taught at the
University of Pittsburgh from 1967. Since 1976, he has been a Social Science Professor at the
University of California, Irvine, teaching in Social Relations, in Comparative Culture, in Social Networks and in Anthropology. He co-founded and has chaired the
Social network PhD program and within the Institute for Mathematical
Behavioral Sciences chairs the Social Dynamics and Evolution research group and the four-campus Human Sciences and Complexity group. He is on the external faculty at the
Santa Fe Institute, is a Council member of the European Complex Systems Society, served as President of the Social Science Computing Association and of the Linkages Development Research Council. He founded the
World Cultures electronic journal in 1985 and the
Structure and Dynamics electronic journal in 2005, where he continues as editor-in-chief.
Douglas White's major contributions belong to four fields: (1)
longitudinal study of historical evolution and of field studies of human groups, (2)
cross-cultural studies, (3)
mathematical modeling of social, economic, and historical dynamics, and (4)
social networks, including, more specifically, the
network realism paradigm. He is a recipient of the U.S. Distinguished Scientist Award of the
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and recipient of "The Best Paper in Mathematical Sociology of 2003" Award of the
American Sociological Association (2004).
White has authored or coauthored 4 books and over 100 articles, and edited 3 books and 2 special journal issues dealing with his research interests. The books include
Network Analysis and Ethnographic Problems: Process Models of a Turkish Nomad Clan (Lexington Press, 2004; paperback 2006, with Ulla Johansen),
Kinship, Networks, and Exchange (Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences) (Cambridge University Press, 1998, with Thomas Schweizer),
Research Methods in Social Network Analysis (Transaction Publishers, Reprint edition, 1991, with Linton C. Freeman and A. Kimball Romney), "Tuaraiscail: Report of the Committee on Language Attitudes Research Regarding Irish" (5 volumes, Dublin: Government Printing Office, 1975, with Lilyan A. Brudner), and "The Anthropology of Urban Environments" (Society for Applied Anthropology, Monograph Series, 1972, with Thomas Weaver). Among his more important journal articles are
"Generative Model for Feedback Networks" in Physical Review E, 016119 (2006, with Natasa Kejzar, Constantino Tsallis, Doyne Farmer, Scott White),
"Network Dynamics and Field Evolution: The Growth of Interorganizational Collaboration in the Life Sciences" in the American Journal of Sociology (2005, Powell, White, Koput and Owen-Smith),
"Ring Cohesion in Marriage and Social Networks" in Mathematiques et sciences humaines (2004),
"The Navigability of Strong Ties: Small Worlds, Tie Strength and Network Topology" journal Complexity (2002, with Michael Houseman),
"Controlled Simulation of Marriage Systems" in the Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation (1999),
"Class, Property and Structural Endogamy: Visualizing Networked Histories" in Theory and Society (1997, with Lilyan A. Brudner),
"Structure and Dynamics of the Global Economy: Network Analysis of International Trade 1965-1980" in Social Forces (1992, with David Smith), "Graph and Semigroup Homomorphisms" in Social Networks (1983, with Karl Reitz), and
Standard Cross-Cultural Sample in the 1969 journal "Ethnology" (with George P. Murdock, 2006 on-line edition reprinted with new annotations).
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Standard Cross-Cultural Sample*
Homepage*
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World Cultures eJournal
