Using social network analysis to reveal unseen relationships in medieval Scotland

Abstract

This article will describe social networks and the concepts of social network analysis. It will then move on to describe some of the uses social network analysis has been put to in historical research. This will be followed by a description of the People of Medieval Scotland database, which provides the data for this research. Finally, the social network analysis techniques used in this research will be described and the preliminary results that reveal findings that traditional historical methods had not will be discussed, including identifying an additional role played by Duncan II Earl of Fife, and using network density model for the diffusion of innovations to identify opinion leaders in medieval Scotland.