By the end of the seminar Social Network Analysis, which I offer for example as part of the supplementary programme Data Literacy at the University of Bayreuth, our students produce great seminar papers that need to be shown to a greater audience.
In the seminar, students are asked to work on self-selected research questions using methods of network analysis. The methods are new to the students in that they never worked with them before. That's why the seminar consists of some introductory part in which the methods are presented and their applicability using R is discussed. Students then formulate an appropriate research question, find or create a data set, and apply the newly acquired methods to the data set.
In the vast majority of cases, students have had no prior exposure to programming. This means that in the seminar they not only learn to apply the methods for network analysis in R, but often teach themselves basic skills in R as well.
Below, you find some of the posters that have been created over time.
The latest iteration of the seminar can be viewed here. Below, you find some of the posters that have been created over time.
Winter 2021¶
Country Connections via Netflix
Alina Benz
This work investigates if the USA is the only global successful producer of movies and series. Therefore, a dataset with the top 10 movies and series per week and country by the most successful streaming service Netflix is analyzed. The strongest connections between countries are clearly by the USA, but especially in Asia there is a strong interregional connection. On a continent level, a connected graph gets visible.
Is FC Bayern Munich Killing Off Their Competition?
Benedikt Lieb
Due to its continued success, FC Bayern Munich is a polarizing club with many followers and just as many critics. One of the main points of criticism lies in Bayern's transfer policy, which many claim aims to strategically weaken the competition in the Bundesliga by buying their direct competitors' valuable players. This project uses network analysis to explore whether the data on transfer expenses between Bundesliga clubs supports this claim. The analysis indicates that while Bayern is not the top buyer in the league, their buying decisions might indeed be influenced by the selling clubs' threat to Bayern's dominance - especially in the case of their rival Borussia Dortmund.
Fraktionszwang im dt. Bundestag
Lukas Bachmeier
In dieser Arbeit wird das Abstimmungsverhalten der Mitglieder des Deutschen Bundestags (MdB) in der Legislatur 2017-2021 mittels Daten von www.abgeordnetenwatch.de untersucht. Insbesondere soll beantwortet werden, ob einzelne MdBs nicht identisch zu ihrer Fraktion abstimmen. Durch eine Community-Detection-Analyse wurde herausgefunden, dass solche MdBs in den Fraktionen CDU/CSU, SPD, AFD, FDP und Die Linke existieren. Die betroffenen Mitglieder der Fraktionen CDU/CSU und SPD stimmen oft zusammen mit FDP ab, während im Abstimmungserhalten der betroffenen Mitglieder der Fraktionen AFD und Die Linke kein Muster zu erkennen ist.
Winter 2020¶
Homophily and transitivity matter for Free Trade Agreements
Josef Möschl
This work investigates whether transitivity and homophily are drivers of free trade agreements (FTA) network formation. Using data from the WTO’s Regional Trade Agreements Database from 1960-2020, we find strong empirical evidence that the formation of the FTA network is influenced by both factors. We investigate evidence for homophiliy and transitivity using both basic social network analysis techniques as well as the exponential random graph (ERG) model.
Gefahr für den Wettbewerb? – Starke Verflechtungen deutscher Immobilienunternehmen durch Großinvestoren
Sebastian van Kann
In dieser Arbeit werden diese Eigentumsverschränkungen zwischen Unternehmen des DAX und des MDAX im Rahmen einer Netzwerkanalyse genauer untersucht. Konkret soll die Frage beantwortet werden, wie sich die Unternehmensbeteiligungen institutioneller Investoren auf die brancheninternen Unternehmensnetzwerke im DAX und MDAX auswirken.
Previous terms @ TUM¶
How is the US drug problem reflected in music?
Ilias Papadimitrou, Julien Deligny, Mario Amah
Drug addiction is one of the greatest social troubles that modern societies struggle with, and especially in the United States, the percentage of drug abuse is constantly rising. It is said that music is one of the things that affect young people the most, even subconsciously when listening to music in the background. By observing the US charts of the last three decades, we wanted to analyze the evolution of drug and alcohol use referenced in music. Are drugs and alcohol more present in today’s chart music? If yes, to what extent? Are the drugs mentioned changing over time?
Evolution of Heterogeneity as an Indicator of Diversity in the US Movie Industry
Mario Anderhub, Torsten Müller, David Sieffert
Feature films reflect and influence society. They are a cultural artifact. In this paper, we address the question of the extent to which the social trend toward diversity and inclusion is made visible in the film industry. To this end, we ask ourselves the question: How did the composition of movie casts change in terms of gender, age and origin and is the societal trend towards more diversity reflected on movie sets? We collected data about movies and actors from The Movie Database, instantiated a movie collaboration network, and analyzed the network in terms of diversity and heterogeneity of dyads.
I support LGBTQ+ - Where Am I Going to Make More Friends
Rossen Boykov, Ata Mazloumian
Being openly gay or in support of gay communities is a polarizing modern day issue. There are many factors that can affect this, like religion, political views and so on. Music is one of the most popular ways for young people to socialize, that's why we wanted to see if being a part of a minority group can negatively impact your social life.