What Can Heterogeneity Add to the Scientometric Map? Steps towards algorithmic historiography

Abstract

The Actor Network represents heterogeneous entities as actants (Callon et al., 1983; 1986). Although computer programs for the visualization of social networks increasingly allow us to represent heterogeneity in a network using different shapes and colors for the visualization, hitherto this possibility has scarcely been exploited (Mogoutov et al., 2008). In this contribution to the Festschrift, I study the question of what heterogeneity can add specifically to the visualization of a network. How does an integrated network improve on the one-dimensional ones (such as co-word and co-author maps)? The oeuvre of Michel Callon is used as the case materials, that is, his 65 papers which can be retrieved from the (Social) Science Citation Index since 1975.