Nexus
"Network theory" has been on my reading list for a while. My first question: what are people talking about when they say network theory? Nexus answers this in such an accessible way that even a humanities major such as myself could follow. The answer to my question is "small world" theory, which deals with the abundance and properties of networks that allow surprisingly short links between nodes in large networks. This is of general interest because a "network" in this context can mean many things, from the neurons in your brain to connections between Hollywood actors (think of the Kevin Bacon game). There's no sense in summarizing all the material, but there are a couple notes of local interest. Buchanan looks at the social networks of neighborhood activists in the West End of Boston and Charlestown during the 60s and suggests that the latter had more of a small world structure, which could account for their greater effectiveness in surviving the city's destructive program of "urban renewal." Similarly, during the 70s Boston's Route 128 companies were vying with their counterparts in Silicon Valley to become the world leader in high-technology development - a struggle that Boston obviously lost. Buchanan: This kind of statement sounds typical of the social "sciences", plausible but ultimately impossible to prove. Small world theory provides the tools to model such scenarios and produce testable hypotheses.

Very readable, and the theory has enormous potential to help us understand important stuff. Recommended to one and all.
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