Research

Research lines, ongoing projects, and open-source software

What We Do

Research

Research lines, funded projects, and open-source software advancing the theory and methods of social network science.

Research Areas

ATheory & MethodsHow we study networks

Social Network Analysis & Network Science

Foundational concepts, measures, and models for studying relational structure across the social and behavioral sciences.

Statistical Network Models

ERGMs, stochastic actor-oriented models (SAOMs), and relational event models for inference on network structure and change.

Mathematical Sociology

Formal and generative models that link micro-level mechanisms to macro-level social structure.

BComputation, Data & SoftwareThe tools we build and use

Computational Social Science

Simulation- and data-intensive approaches that combine computation with social theory.

Network Data Science & Graph Machine Learning

Learning representations, patterns, and predictions from graph-structured data.

Methods & Open-Source Software

Reproducible tools for network analysis, including the R package netmem.

CSubstantive DomainsWhere we apply networks

Science of Science & Knowledge

How researchers, ideas, and institutions form networks that shape the production of scientific knowledge.

Governance & Policy Networks

Inter-organizational and inter-municipal coordination in public administration and metropolitan governance.

Organizational Networks

Informal structure, collaboration, and influence within and between organizations.

Educational Networks

Relational processes in schools and educational systems, from equity to the diffusion of innovations.

Projects

ANID/FONDECYT Nº3250037 · 2025–2027

Group Dynamics

Understanding how social networks and individual characteristics co-evolve within group contexts.

Principal Investigator: Alejandro Espinosa-Rada.

ANID/FONDECYT Nº1261889 · 2026–2028

New Approaches to the Study of Social Mobility

Expanding theory, data, and methods for the study of social mobility.

Principal Investigator: Mauricio Bucca. Co-Principal Investigators: Xi Song, Alejandro Espinosa-Rada.

ANID/FONDECYT Nº1261268 · 2026–2028

Metropolitan Governance

The institutional complexity of metropolitan governance networks in Chile and Colombia.

Principal Investigator: Karina Arias Yurisch. Co-Principal Investigators: Karina Retamal, Alejandro Espinosa-Rada, Cristian Leyton.

Concurso Avanza UC 2025 · 2026–2027

Governing Complexity

Applying multilevel network analysis to the institutional framework of metropolitan environmental governance — part of the group’s broader SNA-SES (Social Networks and Socio-ecological Sustainability) research line, alongside the UC–UNSW Seed Fund (2025–2026, with Pavel Krivitsky) and prior ANID/FONDECYT Nº1220560 (2022–2025).

Responsible Investigator: Karina Arias. Principal Investigator: Alejandro Espinosa-Rada.

ANID/FONDECYT Postdoctoral Nº3240333 · 2024–2027

Innovación en las Aulas de Magallanes

Social network analysis among educational actors in the Magallanes region and its influence on the diffusion of innovations in classrooms.

Responsible Investigator: Daniela Luengo.

William T. Grant Foundation, Reducing Inequality Research Grant · 2024–2027

Housing, Networks, and Mobility for Low-Income Youth

A study of the implementation of federal housing investments to reduce inequality in Detroit.

Daniela Luengo.

ANID/FONDECYT Regular Nº1250594 · 2025–2027

Teacher Mobility in Technical-Vocational Secondary Education

Analyzing patterns and determining factors of teacher mobility in technical-vocational secondary education.

Principal Investigator: María Beatriz Fernández Cofré. Co-Investigators: Gabriel Gutiérrez, Daniela Luengo.

Software

netmem

An R package for handling and transforming network data across formats commonly used in social network analysis, developed and maintained within the group.

  • CRAN page
  • Install: install.packages("netmem")
Back to top