La homofilia/heterofilia en el marco de la teoría y análisis de redes sociales.: Orientación metodológica, medición y aplicaciones

Social homophily describes the tendency to have social relationships with people who are socially similar, over and above the expected by randomness. This represents a matter of great interest for sociology. Homophily is at the heart of social reproduction (or of social change), of socialization processes and of membership in reference groups. The study of homophily has experienced a significant leap since it became a subject of study under social network analysis (and theory), particularly since the decades of 1970 and 1980. The article gives an overview of different approaches to homophily and presents a network operativization of this concept. An application of this operativization on social groups identified by three variables is presented too. Thus, the article addresses methodological aspects, and issues linked to analysis methods and indicators.