Institute for Mathematical Behavioral Sciences

Here, a class of structures called \generalized location systems" is introduced, which can be used to characterize a range of social processes. An exponential family of distributions is developed for modeling such systems, allowing for the incorporation of both attributional and relational covariates. Methods are shown for simulation and inference using the location system model. Two illustrative applications (occupational stratiØcation and residential settlement patterns) are presented, and simulation is employed to show the behavior of the location system model in each case. By leveraging established results in the Øelds of social network analysis, spatial statistics, and statistical mechanics, it is argued that sociologists can model complex social systems without sacriØcing inferential tractability.