Valente lecture: Social network analysis for behavior change

Last Thursday, Tom Valente delivered a lecture called Using Social Network Analysis to Understand and Change Behavior at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health.

Like his book Network Models of the Diffusion of Innovations, the lecture reviewed prominent network analysis theories and models in the context of innovation diffusion theory. The content is highly applicable to building woodland owner networks to foster sustainable forestry behaviors.

Valente’s full lecture is available as a narrated slideshow here.

The lecture abstract is as follows (from the promotional poster):

Prof. Valente will describe the field of social network analysis and present data from individual and community level studies that describe how network factors influence behavior. He will also present data on the effectiveness of network-based interventions and explore the utility of social network data for accelerating diffusion of innovations. Data and evaluation derived from studies of tobacco use, substance use, children’s health insurance coalitions, and many other settings.

Click here to watch and listen to Valente’s lecture.  It’s long but worth checking out.  (You can skip forward and back among slides by clicking slide titles at right.)