Lots of people saw Kieran Healy’s humorous and thought proviking post about how some very basic matrix algebra and centrality analysis can be used to identify people within social networks using basic metadata.  This article by Shin Kap Han goes into more depth about centrality and the power of weak bonds; I found the analysis of the socio-economic stratifications that existed between the various revolutionary groups, which often caused collective action problems, to be most fascinating.

It took me a little while to revisit Healy’s post, and decided to check out Han’s piece this time – definitely worth a look if you’re into social and political mobilization.  It’s a bit quantitative, and focuses on the American Revolution, but also has a lot of observations that are germane to modern political organizing.