About

Ronald Breiger is a Regents Professor and a Professor of Sociology at the University of Arizona. He holds affiliations with the Interdisciplinary Program in Applied Mathematics, the Interdisciplinary Program in Statistics & Data Science, and the School of Government and Public Policy. Breiger earned his PhD from Harvard University in 1975 and has previously held faculty positions at Harvard University and Cornell University, where he was the Goldwin Smith Professor of Sociology before joining the University of Arizona in 2000. His research areas include social networks, stratification, science, knowledge, and innovation, as well as theory and measurement issues in cultural and institutional analysis. Breiger has been recognized with numerous honors, including being named a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, a Fulbright Senior Scholar, and receiving the Simmel Award from the International Network for Social Network Analysis, along with the James S. Coleman Distinguished Career Achievement Award from the American Sociological Association Section on Mathematical Sociology in 2018. He has served as an editor for prominent journals such as Social Networks and Network Science and currently serves as an Academic Editor of PLoS ONE and on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Cultural Sociology and Poetics. His work is focused on encouraging closer intellectual relations between the sociology of culture, cultural studies, social network analysis, and formal models of classification and social meaning.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Sociology
• Artificial Intelligence
• Mathematics
• Data science
• World Wide Web
• Linguistics
• Epistemology
• Economic growth
• Statistics
• History
• Economics
• Econometrics
• Demography

Selected publications

• Culture as configurations of categories: Analyzing peer effects via dual-to-regression modeling

  Poetics · 2025-05-28 · 2 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Templates of eventful action in social networks

  Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2025-01-17

  book-chapterSenior author

  We introduce the term relational template to indicate culturally extant and available models of typification of roles and (inter)actions in networks. These models are eventfully deployed by situated actors. Building on extant theorizing and research studies, we emphasize two features of relational templates: transposition of models for relationships from one familiar domain to another; and actors’ construction of templates from locally accessible materials ready for use. We argue that these templates are eventful in multiple ways, providing the grounds for invocations of networks, norms, practices, discourses, and modalities of interaction. Events also occur when there are disruptions, ruptures, or dissolutions in the networked structures of society and politics. In this chapter we illuminate the essential connection between networks and events as they are situationally co-constitutive. In doing so, we cast light upon both existing and potential new paths for eventful synchronous analysis of networks and culture.

  PublisherDOI

• Duality: Taking stock and moving forward

  Social Networks · 2025-09-16

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• RIO as a Gateway to Field Theory

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2024-02-22

  book-chapterSenior author

  Chapter 9 demonstrates how RIO facilitates a field-theoretic approach to regression models. The chapter draws parallels between the data representations made possible by turning regression models inside out and the geometric data analysis (GDA) that is central to field theoretic approaches to social research.

  PublisherDOI

• Action and Interaction

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2024-02-22

  book-chapterSenior author

  A summary is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

  PublisherDOI

• Conclusion

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2024-02-22

  book-chapterSenior author

  Chapter 10 concludes our book, outlining the benefits of a case-oriented approach to regression. We review key substantive findings from the analyses presented in previous chapters and highlight directions for future research.

  PublisherDOI

• Turning Regression Inside Out

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2024-02-22

  book-chapterSenior author

  A summary is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

  PublisherDOI

• RIO as a Gateway to Case Selection

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2024-02-22

  book-chapterSenior author

  Chapter 7 shows how RIO can facilitate algorithmic case selection. We outline how algorithms can be used to select cases for in-depth analysis and provide two empirical analyses to illustrate how RIO facilitates a deeper understanding of how cases relate to one another within the model space, and how they align with the theoretical motivations for different case selection strategies.

  PublisherDOI

• Regression Inside Out

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2024-02-22 · 3 citations

  bookSenior author

  Linear regression analysis, with its many generalizations, is the predominant quantitative method used throughout the social sciences and beyond. The goal of the method is to study relations among variables. In this book, Schoon, Melamed and Breiger turn regression modeling inside out to put the emphasis on the cases (people, organizations, and nations) that comprise the variables. By re-analyzing influential published research, they reveal new insights and present a principled way to unlock a set of more nuanced interpretations than has previously been attainable. The emphasis is on intuition and examples that can be reproduced using the code and datasets provided. Relating their contributions to methodologies that operate under quite different philosophical assumptions, the authors advance multi-method social science and help to bridge the divide between quantitative and qualitative research. The result is a modern, accessible, and innovative take on extracting knowledge from data.

  PublisherDOI

• RIO as a Gateway to Configurational Comparative Analysis

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2024-02-22

  book-chapterSenior author

  Chapter 8 demonstrates how RIO allows analysts to incorporate the case-oriented logic of configurational comparative analysis into a regression framework. We contrast regression with qualitative comparative analysis (QCA), discuss key benefits of QCA, and outline a comparative configurational approach to regression. We illustrate how RIO can be used to realize some of the benefits of configurational comparative analysis through (1) a macro-comparative analysis of education-based inequality in political participation and (2) an analysis of the correlates of poverty using nationally representative data from the United States.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• David Melamed

  The Ohio State University

  15 shared

• John W. Mohr

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  14 shared

• Robin Wagner‐Pacifici

  14 shared

• Eric W. Schoon

  14 shared

• Philippa Pattison

  University of Melbourne

  6 shared

• Matthew Dabkowski

  The University of Texas at El Paso

  3 shared

• Barbara J. Mills

  3 shared

• Victor Asal

  3 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Sociology

  Harvard University

  1975

• A.B., Summa cum Laude, Sociology

  Brandeis University

  1970

Awards & honors

• Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sc…
• Fulbright Senior Scholar
• Simmel Award of the International Network for Social Network…
• James S. Coleman Distinguished Career Achievement Award give…