The Sugiyama method a well-known concept for hierarchical graph drawings. It places the vertices on horizontal lines and attempts to avoid edge crossings and bends of edges. The method consists of four phases (1) decycling, (2) layering (3) crossing reduction, and (4) coordinate assignment or routing, which each encompass an NP-hard problem. For each phase there is a wide collection of algorithms.

We modify the Sugiyama method and place the vertices on concentric rings, or as recurrent hierarchies. Concentric rings are well-suited for the representation of centralities in social networks. Recurrent hierarchies were introduced by Sugiyama at al. in 1981, but have not been studied since then. Recurrent hierarchies can be drawn in 3D as a level graph on a cylinder, or in 2D with rays. They are well-suited to draw many cycles.

We investigate these modifications, and present algorithms for the four phases of the Sugiyama method.