Lothar Krempel and Michael Schnegg (2005) “About the Image: Diffusion Dynamics in an

Historical Network”, Structure and Dynamics: eJournal of Anthropological and Related Sciences:

Vol. 1: No. 1, Article 10.

http://repositories.cdlib.org/imbs/socdyn/sdeas/vol1/iss1/art10

This paper discusses how the structure of a social network influences history and the spread of ideas in a medium-sized German town.  This is accomplished by creating and analyzing several graphic representations of the data.  First, they link the villagers to different historical events, sorting the graphs by political persuasion and occupation.

When they plotted the diffusion of political ideas, it became clear that the merchants and craftsmen were vital in the first stage of spreading ideas.  Ideas spread from the center of the graph towards the edges, so the occupations on the “fringes” of the social network only became involved in the second phase of political action.