CASOS Working PAPER

"Cluster Analysis of Unlabeled Structures" (PDF file)
Author: Carter T. Butts

Abstract
A central problem for the structural analyst is the comparison of disparate social structures in order to identify underlying commonalities between them. This is especially true when large populations of structures are concered; in such cases, it is often reasonable to ask whether there may be groups of structures which are especially similar to others within the population. Such questions, however, raise fundamental issues regarding the meaning of underlying structure, and of similarity between structures. These issues, ultimately, are central to the problem of describing the distribution of structures within a population.