Cluster analysis: Survey and evaluation of techniques

Description

During the last years the number of applications of cluster analysis in the social sciences has increased very rapidly. One of the reasons for this is the growing awareness that the assumption of homogeneity implicit in the application of such techniques as factor analysis and scaling is often violated by social science data; another is the increased interest in typolo­ gies and the construction of types. Dr. Bijnen has done an extremely useful job by putting together and evaluating attempts to arrive at better and more elegant techniques of cluster analysis from such diverse fields as the social sciences, biology and medicine. His presentation is very clear and concise, reflecting his intention not to write a 'cookery-book' but a text for scholars who need a reliable guide to pilot them through an extensive and widely scattered literature. Ph. C. Stouthard v Preface This book contains a survey of a number of techniques of clustering analysis. The merits and demerits of the procedures described are also discussed so that the research worker can make an informed choice be­ tween them. These techniques have been published in a very great number of journals which are not all easily accessible to the sociologist. This difficulty is com­ pounded because developments in the different disciplines have occurred almost entirely independently from each other; reference is made only sporadically in a piece of literature to the literature of other disciplines.