Karate Club Study.

arnisador

Sr. Grandmaster
MTS Alumni
An article I'm reading on clustering algorithms for networks uses the example from this paper (the title wasn't given):



Zachary, W. W. (1977)​
J. Anthropol. Res. 33, 452–473.



Apparently, this is a study of a 34-member karate club wherein the head instructor or owner and his assistant had a falling out:​

"ZacharyÂ’s Karate Club Study. Although computer-generated networks provide a reproducible and well controlled test bed for our community-structure algorithm, it is clearly desirable to test the algorithm on data from real-world networks as well. To this end, we have selected two datasets representing real-world networks for which the community structure is already known from other sources. The first of these is drawn from the well known karate club study of Zachary (26). In this study, Zachary observed 34 members of a karate club over a period of 2 years. During the course of the study, a disagreement developed between the administrator of the club and the clubÂ’s instructor, which ultimately resulted in the instructorÂ’s leaving and starting a new club, taking about a half of the original clubÂ’s members with him. Zachary constructed a network of friendships between members of the club, using a variety of measures to estimate the strength of ties between individuals."



(From "Community structure in social and biological networks" by M. Girvanand M. E. J. Newman, available here.)



Well, I thought it was interesting to see a martial arts politics angle in a paper I'm reading for work! We discuss it tomorrow in the reading group.​
 
That is interesting. I would also be interested in the factors that led to the migration of a section of the populace. Was there a common element all members shared?
 
Unfortunately I just have the article that references it, not the original article. I intend to try to find the original one as well!
 

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