ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces bipartite (two-mode) networks and the Raleigh network data. It begins with both a conceptual and a formal introduction to bipartite networks, including an overview of metrics of density, centrality, and closure for bipartite networks. Some common applications of bipartite network data in social science research are described. The second part of the chapter describes the bipartite networks used in the Raleigh analysis; one class of nodes is speakers, and the other class is the elementary, middle, and high schools that the speakers attended. The reasons for using schools as one class of nodes are discussed, followed by a detailed look at the network data for each of the three generations of speakers described in Chapter 2. The chapter concludes with a summary of previous work that uses a metric of structural cohesion in the Raleigh network data in order to assess the influence of network position on speakers’ retention of Southern vowels (Dodsworth & Benton 2017).
