Issue editor: Matthew Peeples

In the age of Facebook and Twitter, “social network” is a phrase heard or read almost daily. Most of our readers will have a general concept of social networks through their familiarity with these communication tools. Yet, social networks are a mainstay of the human experience, not a product of new technologies.

Articles in this issue describe analyses conducted by Southwest Social Networks (SWSN) project team members using the SWSN database and social network analysis methods. Although these analyses draw on somewhat different techniques and evidence, they all center on related questions. How did patterns of interaction and exchange change through time at local and regional scales? How might the structure and organization of networks of interaction among settlements have influenced the long-term success or failure of settlements or regions? How did the arrival of a relatively small number of northern immigrants to the mountains and deserts of the southern Southwest affect the network landscape of the region as a whole?