ANALISI FATTORIALE E BLOCKMODELING: UN APPROCCIO COMBINATO PER L’ANALISI DEI NETWORK TWO-MODE

Abstract In the presentwork we propose to combine Factorial Analysis and Blockmodeling techniques in order to represent and visually analyze two-mode networks. In social science, two-mode data structures are of considerable interest to the extent that they express the duality of social structure. Factorial Analysis and Blockmodeling are two of the most appropriate techniques to synthesize and graphically analyze both the underlying structure of the two-mode network and the relevant subsets constituting it. These techniques also preserve two-mode network dual nature. Our proposal aims at developing a strategy to address some of the problematic issuesof Blockmodeling implementation for two-mode network analysis by using of Factorial Analysis tools. Due to the analytical relationships among these methodologies, we show how Factorial Methods can be a complement to two-mode Blockmodeling according to three main directions: as a method apt to reduce and simplify data structure; as a strategy to extract useful information in the pre-specification process; as a method to define a metric space in which to properly represent and display the positions defined through Blockmodeling, along with modes’ attibutes. The resulting benefits of the combination of Multiple Factorial Analysis and Blockmodeling are also shown in the analysis of heterogeneous two-mode network consisting of different classes of entities, with distinct sets of relationships collected for different time points, described with entities’ attributes and their structural positions. This analytical approach is adopted to study a field of theatrical coproductions as part of the theatre system ofItaly’s Campania Region, in the framework of Bourdieu’s fields theory.