Rick Grannis
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
Ph.D. University of California, Irvine
Office: 299 HAINES HALL
Phone: 3102674965
Fax:
310-206-9838
E-mail:
grannis@soc.ucla.edu
Mailing Address:
264 Haines Hall - Box 951551
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1551
Subfield
Social Network Analysis
Research Interests
I have broad interests in applied mathematics and formal scientific models and I have found the social sciences to be the arena in which the most important breakthroughs still await. The models that I have found most useful are networks and space, although I am interested in many things.
At the beginning of my career I was fascinated by what could be learned by re-conceptualizing old problems in new ways. I re-conceptualized gangs using the rubrics of both closed, corporate communities and evolving polities and found that they defineg community property, a commons, engage in “tolerated” theft, and allocate community resources. Similarly, formal modeling of several non-human mammals showed that they exhibit behaviors consistent with the notion of recognizing social “rights” as opposed to privileges maintained by power or other individual characteristics. Perhaps my most well-known work reconceptualized both the physical and social aspects of neighborhoods as networks and showed how they correlated to each other.
Next, my work focused on understanding segregation indices and I argued that, since segregation indices are merely functional equations, they can best be understood by a clear analysis of their input variables.
My current projects all involve network analysis, understanding the complex, interconnected social world around us. Instead of looking for systemic behavior in the properties of the system's constituents, I hope to instead understand the architecture of complexity, the networks around us, how they emerge, what they look like, and how they evolve. Examples of my interests include:
Understanding Large-Scale Social Structure from Sample Data and Random Graph Models of Interdependent Local Processes
Understanding Flow Patterns in Social Networks ranging from the flow of guns throughout criminal networks to the flow of Naval Officers among Billets throughout their Careers.
Understanding the Correlation between Network Position and Emergent Power from power in work groups to kinship Networks among the American Power Elite.
Selected Publications
"Playing God on a Budget: Understanding Large-Scale Social Structure from Sample Data and Random Graph Models of Inderdependent Local Processes" Under Review.
"Following the Path or Navigating a Network: the Flow of Naval Officers among Billets throughout their Careers." Under Review.
"T-Communities: Pedestrian Street Networks and Residential Segregation in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York" Under Review.
"From Neighbors to Neighborhood Effects: Street Networks and Social Networks" Under Review.
"Working Connections: Authority, Power, Class Consciousness, and Centrality in Factory Work Groups" Under Review.
“Segregation Indices and their Functional Inputs,” Sociological Methodology 32:69-84.
“The Importance of Trivial Streets: Residential Streets and Residential Segregation.” American Journal of Sociology 103: 6, 1530-1564.
“Our Boys: Gang Life in Orange County, California.” Footnotes of the American Sociological Association 29(2): 1-6.
"All American Families: Kinship Networks among the American Power Elite" In Progress
Depraved Indifference and the Right to Life” in D. Bell (ed), Power and Survival within Groups. 2002. Cambridge University Press.
"Defining the Commons and Allocating Community Resources: The Role of Territorial Gangs" in R. C. Hunt and A. Gilman (eds) 1998 Property (SEA monographs in economic anthropology). New York: University Press of America.
"Rights and Privileges among Other Species” in D. Bell (ed), Power and Survival within Groups. 2002. Cambridge University Press.
"It’s Not a Small World After All: Social Networks and Neighborhood Community
"The City: Marketplace or Home?
"Street Terrorism and Martial Law: The Consequences of Anti-Gang Legislation on the Civil Rights of Non-Gang Members
"Juvenile Delinquents or Warrior Age-Set? An Analysis of Orange County, California Territorial Gangs as Manifestations of Evolving Polities
"FxTroop and Orange County Turf Gangs: Modern, Urban, Closed Corporate Communities
"Tolerated Theft and Community Property in Orange County Turf Gangs"
Grants
"Social Networks, Street Networks, and Sociospatial Inequality" Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research.
Innovative Research Program Award. Bronfenbrenner Foundation.
“Patterns of Residential Streets and Patterns of Residential Segregation.” Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences Dissertation Grant.
“The Economics of Territorial Gangs and the Communities they Inhabit.” California Policy Seminar Grant.
Awards
Nominated Fellow, Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences. 2000.
Lauds and Laurels Outstanding Graduate Student Award. University of California, Irvine. 1999.
Chancellor's Fellow. University of California, Irvine.
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