From social networks to health: Durkheim after the turn of the millennium

Beginning with the immeasurable contributions of Emile Durkheim in the late 1800s (Durkheim, 1967), it is by now widely recognized by public health, biomedical, and social scientists that social relationships matter for health and mental health. While the study of social networks was initially borrowed from the field of anthropology to study how social relationships beyond kinship influenced trading patterns, mate selection, and local politics (Barnes, 1954; Bott, 1971), new interest in the social network patterning of health and mental health has developed at a steady pace over the last several decades. Figure 1 shows the total number of articles published in leading epidemiologic, public health, and medical journals during the past several decades that included the phrase “social network” or “social networks” in the title or abstract. Figure 1 Total number of articles appearing in selected epidemiological, public health, and medical journals with the term “social network” or “social networks” in the abstract or title. Notably, the figure demonstrates a sharp uptick around the turn of the millennium. Prior to this point, the idea of “social networks” in the public health and medical literature was most often used in reference to the closely related but distinct concept of “social support,” such as has been described in the stress “buffering” literature (Cassel, 1976; Cobb, 1976) and quite akin to Durkheim’s notion of social cohesion and population well-being. Right before this uptick, Berkman et al. (2000) published, in the pages of this journal, a review paper that served as a call-to-arms of sorts, prodding researchers scientists to push the boundaries of network thinking. In their now-classic essay, which at the time of this writing has been cited more than 1,500 times, Berkman et al. (2000) provided a conceptual model for thinking about the ways that social networks might influence health, mental health, and health behaviors. Specifically, as we discuss below, Berkman et al. (2000) called for a more systematic empirical approach to the study of social networks and health that not only captured the sprit of Durkheim but also leveraged rapidly developing methodological and computational advancements. This Special Issue of Social Science and Medicine provides an occasion for reflection about how far we have come since the prescient essay by Berkman et al. (2000). At that time, Google was only two years old, the Winklevi had not yet had the idea for Facebook’s predecessor, and the iPhone was still seven years away from release. Much has changed since then. But the spirit of the Berkman et al. (2000) essay and their charge seems to be one that researchers have taken quite seriously. Today, scholars across a multitude of disciplines ranging from field-driven anthropology to theoretical physics engage in a growing field known as “network science” whose applications to the study of health and mental health continue to proliferate, as evidenced in Figure 1. In the remainder of this introduction, we provide a brief look back at the contribution of Berkman et al. (2000), summarize the themes raised by papers included in this Special Issue and how they advance our knowledge of networks and health, and conclude with remarks about potential avenues for future research.