This specialization (within PhD programs in Economics and Political Science) awards a non-degree certificate in network science, offered by the Center for Network Science at CEU (CEU CNS). Students will enroll and receive their PhD degrees in either the Department of Economics or Political Science. CEU CNS provides an organizational platform for research in network science, with a special focus on applications to practical social problems. The particular strength of the Center is in its diverse interdisciplinary faculty, and the intellectual leadership of Albert-László Barabási, a part-time faculty member of the Center.
Students who intend to research political phenomena from a network science angle also need to apply to one of the five tracks of the Doctoral Program. They will receive their scholarship from a separate budget and they will need to take 8 credits from the Center for Network Science.
Why network science?
Network science, as a maturing field, offers a unique perspective to tackle complex problems, impenetrable to linear-proportional thinking. Networks became part of our everyday experience as we routinely use online social network services, we hear reports on the operations of terrorist networks, and we speculate on the six degrees of separation to celebrities and presidents. Less manifestly, we rely on vast and complex infrastructural networks of electric power distribution, internet data routing, or financial transfers. We only ponder the complexity of these systems when we are faced with avalanche-like dynamics in their collapse, as major blackouts, system stoppages, or financial meltdowns. The science of networks is emerging as a scientific discipline that examines exactly these kinds of interconnections. It aims at explaining complex phenomena at larger scales emerging from simple principles of making network links between nodes.
It seems that networks are everywhere, but network science uses this concept with a careful definition. What is a network in a network science sense? The mere possibility of indentifying nodes and drawing lines between them is different from identifying a network mechanism that explains complex outcomes from simple building blocks. At a railway station for example one could identify travelers as nodes, and draw ties between any two of them if they are headed to the same destination, or if they purchased their ticket from the same teller. These ties however would hardly figure as part of a theoretically sound explanation for individual behavior, or for the emergent functioning of the transit system. If you however drew a network where destinations are nodes, and the number of travelers moving between them is the tie, you can start to identify mechanisms of systemic breakdown in case of a major accident.
While nodes and ties are the fundamental building blocks to any network science approach, the power of network science lies in focusing on triads and beyond: the broader topographical context. Recognizing that connections matter is only the first step: recognizing that ties around dyads matter begins to unleash the power of network science. A tie to a political party might matter for a firm to have access to resources and timely information on policies. Thus far this is a question of connections – is a firm connected to a party? But one can also ask: once a firm is connected to a political party, how are its ties to other firms affected? This becomes a network question: a tie formed at one part of the network system influences the probability of ties elsewhere, and might help explain the emergence of a politically polarized economy.
How to apply?
Applications are handled via the admissions systems of either the Department of Economics, or the Doctoral School of Political Science, Public Policy and International Relations.
For a PhD in Political Science with Certificate in Network Science click here, (and then select "Admissions" from the menu)
Requirements
In addition to the disciplinary program requirements at either department, PhD students working towards the network science certificate would be required to take one mandatory course on the fundamental ideas in network science, and a total of 4 credits worth of elective courses. In addition, students in these tracks should collaborate with at least one faculty from the Center from Network Science as their first or second reader to conceptualize a dissertation project that engages with debates in network science, uses methods from network science, and has a strong empirical component with original network data collection, or data generation via simulations and experiments.
For more information, please visit:
http://www.ceu.hu/phd-certificate-in-network-science