A social network analysis of the field of party politics

This paper employs social network analysis (SNA) to trace the intellectual and institutional development of the field of party politics within political science. Using archival data from the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), we construct a network of scholars based on participation in joint sessions, general conferences, summer schools, and membership in the Standing Group on Political Parties. Additionally, we analyze citation and co-citation patterns in key journals—Party Politics and the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion, and Parties—to map the scholarly influences shaping the field. By integrating these datasets, we uncover the structural relationships among researchers, identify central actors, and examine patterns of collaboration, thematic clustering, and disciplinary diffusion over time. The study contributes to the sociology of political science by revealing the mechanisms through which disciplinary boundaries and research agendas in party politics are forged and sustained.