Author_Institution :
Goal Group, CNR, Rome, Italy
Abstract :
Within a network new links of the same kind can derive from previous links, but also new kinds of links/relations derive from previous relations, thus new kinds (levels) of networks derive from a given network. Both phenomena would need a systematic theory (especially in social domains), good definitions, and possibly simulation models for understanding their real dynamics and predictive power. While building a model, with its necessary "abstraction", one should be very careful do not sacrifice to the "formal" model substantial/essential aspects of the "links", of the specific social relations. We will, on the one side, discuss general considerations (not a really systematized theory nor simulations) about: deriving networks from networks and links from links. We will, on the other side, show (with some examples) how the subtle "semantics" (the good "definition" of a given relational notion, and its "aboutness" and "arguments") matters a lot, in order to derive or not one link from the other, and a network from the other.