signed_blockmodel_general function

Generalized blockmodeling for signed networks

Finds blocks of nodes with specified inter/intra group ties

signed_blockmodel_general(g, blockmat, alpha = 0.5)

Arguments

• g: igraph object with a sign edge attribute.
• blockmat: Integer Matrix. Specifies the inter/intra group patterns of ties
• alpha: see details

Returns

numeric vector of block assignments and the associated criterion value

Details

The function minimizes P(C)=$\alpha$N+(1-$\alpha$)P, where N is the total number of negative ties within plus-sets and P be the total number of positive ties between plus-sets. This function implements the generalized model. For the structural balance version see signed_blockmodel .

Examples

library(igraph)
# create a signed network with three groups and different inter/intra group ties
g1 <- g2 <- g3 <- make_full_graph(5)

V(g1)$name <- as.character(1:5)
V(g2)$name <- as.character(6:10)
V(g3)$name <- as.character(11:15)

g <- Reduce("%u%", list(g1, g2, g3))
E(g)$sign <- 1
E(g)$sign[1:10] <- -1
g <- add_edges(g, c(rbind(1:5, 6:10)), attr = list(sign = -1))
g <- add_edges(g, c(rbind(1:5, 11:15)), attr = list(sign = -1))
g <- add_edges(g, c(rbind(11:15, 6:10)), attr = list(sign = 1))

# specify the link patterns between groups
blockmat <- matrix(c(1, -1, -1, -1, 1, 1, -1, 1, -1), 3, 3, byrow = TRUE)
signed_blockmodel_general(g, blockmat, 0.5)

References

Doreian, Patrick and Andrej Mrvar (2009). Partitioning signed social networks. Social Networks 31(1) 1-11

Author(s)

David Schoch