Bellaterra, February 2-6, 2026. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
The aim of this course is to enable graduate students and researchers in the social sciences to create personal network research designs and to analyze personal network data. The course is a mix of lectures and computer sessions. On the first morning, we will discuss the basic definitions and central concepts in personal network research and we will briefly relate personal networks (sometimes called egocentric networks) with various theoretical streams in the social sciences. This will give students an understanding of the different requirements that researchers may pose to their designs or instruments. We will then introduce the basic steps of measurement of personal networks. The second morning is focused on delineating the networks. Students will be introduced to the variety of name generators and alternative approaches used in the social sciences, which will be compared with respect to contents, the characteristics of the measured networks and ties, the reliability and validity of the measures, and respondent burden. Next, we will discuss the statistical analysis of personal networks with R. The participants will have ample opportunity to discuss their own research projects using personal networks. After discussing current applications of egocentric approaches in social cohesion and health prevention, participants will also learn how to visualize networks with visone and how to compute statistical analysis of networks of relational hyper-events (RHEM). The last morning will be devoted to the new version of Network Canvas, a computer program that was specifically developed for the computer-assisted collection, visualization and analysis of extended personal networks, with both quantitative and qualitative aspects.
Lecturers (this list may change): Christopher McCarty (University of Florida), Bernie Hogan (University of Oxford), Jürgen Lerner (University of Konstanz), José Luis Molina (Autonomous University of Barcelona), Raffaele Vacca (University of Milan), Gabriel Hâncean (University of Bucharest), Alejandro Dinkelberg (UC3M), and Isidro Maya-Jariego (Universidad de Sevilla).