This chapter gives an overview of the stochastic actor-oriented model that can be used for the statistical analysis of the dynamics of networks and more general structures. This model is employed in a principled method of empirically anchoring social simulation studies. In particular, the chapter addresses the problem of holding micro-level mechanisms of network change accountable for the emergence of macro-level network properties.

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• Data set
• Part 1: Data selection
• Part 2: Models for friendship only
• Part 3: Models for friendship without transitivity
• Part 4: Models for friendship and exogenous dislike
• Part 5: Community detection