Multiple clocks in network evolution

Relational event models shift the analytical focus away from network ties defined in terms of transitions between mutually exclusive states of connectivity, to bonding processes emerging from observable flows linking senders and receivers of action. In this framework, the possibility to connect social mechanisms of theoretical interest to sequences of observed relational events depends on the relative speed at which these mechanisms operate. Building on established non-parametric methods in survival analysis, in this paper we introduce a new approach to the analysis of the internal time distribution of relational mechanisms of broad theoretical interest in research on the evolutionary dynamics of social and other kinds of networks. We propose general algorithms that may be adopted to study the time structure of theoretically relevant network mechanisms. We illustrate the practical value of our proposal in an analysis of a large sample of high-frequency financial transactions observed over a period of 11 years. We show how the internal time structure of the social mechanisms that control flows of market transactions is sensitive to institutional change in transaction regimes induced by successive financial crises. The results we report invite reflection on a new notion of network “structure” incorporating change as one of its constitutive elements. The study suggests a number of conjectures that provide broad conceptual bases for the development of testable hypotheses about the forces that shape the evolutionary dynamics of network structure.