Exploratory blockmodeling explained

Exploratory blockmodeling is an (inductive) approach (or a group of approaches) in blockmodeling regarding the specification of an ideal blockmodel.^[1] This approach, also known as hypotheses-generating, is the simplest approach, as it "merely involves the definition of the block types permitted as well as of the number of clusters."^[2] With this approach, researcher usually defines the best possible blockmodel, which then represent the base for the analysis of the whole network.^[3]

This approach is usually based on:^[4]

• previous analyses and theoretical considerations,
• using stricker blockmodel and block types, where the structural equivalence is stricker than the regular equivalence and
• using smaller number of classes.

The opposite approach is called a confirmatory blockmodeling.

Notes and References

1. Book: Doreian . Patrick . Batagelj . Vladimir . Ferligoj . Anuška . 2004 . Generalized Blockmodeling (Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences) . Cambridge University Press . 0-521-84085-6.
2. https://www.iioa.org/conferences/16th/files/Papers/Weber%20Introducing%20blockmodeling%20to%20input-output%20analysis.doc WEBER, M. (2007), “Introducing blockmodeling to input-output analysis”. 16th International I-Ot Conf, Istanbul, Turkey.
3. Faust . Katherine . Wasserman . Stanley . 1992 . Blockmodels: Interpretation and evaluation . Social Networks . 14 . 5–61 .
4. Book: Nooy . Wouter de . Mrvar . Andrej . Batagelj . Vladimir . Exploratory Social Network Analysis with Pajek. Revised and Expanded Edition for Updated Software. Third Edition . Cambridge University Press . 2018 . 978-1-108-47414-6.