Relational Event Model
The relational event model (REM), introduced by Carter Butts in 2008, analyzes streams of time-stamped interactions — emails, radio calls, messages, citations — as a continuous-time event-history process. Rather than treating a network as a static set of ties, it models the instantaneous rate at which any sender directs an action at any receiver as a function of the history of past events, letting researchers test how prior interaction shapes future interaction.
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Sources
- Butts, C. T. (2008). A relational event framework for social action. Sociological Methodology, 38(1), 155–200. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9531.2008.00203.x ↗
- Snijders, T. A. B., van de Bunt, G. G., & Steglich, C. E. G. (2010). Introduction to stochastic actor-based models for network dynamics. Social Networks, 32(1), 44–60. DOI: 10.1016/j.socnet.2009.02.004 ↗
How to cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 22). Relational Event Model (REM). ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/en/sociology/relational-event-model
Which method?
Set this method beside its closest kin and read them side by side — the library lays the books on the table; the choice is yours.
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- Stochastic Actor-Oriented ModelSociology↔ compare