Social Network Analysis as a Tool for Understanding the Diffusion of GIS Innovations: The Greek GIS Community

Abstract

In this paper I will show how social network analysis techniques can be used for understanding GIS diffusion at a national scale. In particular, two network models, cohesion and structural equivalence, are explored in the context of the emerging Greek GIS community. A map of this community based on GIS teams and linkages is put forward, and two social constructs, institutional setting and disciplinary background, are used to highlight the heterogeneous context within which GIS are embedded across a whole country. The findings suggest that specific actors such as the Greek ESRI vendor and relevant social groups such as the teams with a surveying engineering background take centre stage in the diffusion of GIS innovations in Greece in the early 1990s.