Ethnographic Accounts of Personal Networks – SIAA (Italian Society for Applied Anthropology) VII annual meeting Ferrara (Italy). 12-14 December 2019

We practice personal networks every day. Each of us is the center of our own universe. We know who our friends are, how they are connected to each other, and what kinds of sociability, help, and information they might provide. But how do such network individuals operate? Personal network analysis and visualization combined with ethnographic interviews and participant observation have the potential for researching creatively integrating ethnography and network analysis, based on the assumption that it is due to ethnography that we characterize ties. Ethnography permits the revealing, the unveiling, and the classifying of networks. In this sense, the information on composition of networks are gathered ethnographically in a rich and complex fashion due to the extended contact time between researchers and the community of participants. These ethnographic accounts of personal networks accurately display social relationships as they come and go, thus demonstrating their dynamism and mobility.

In this panel session we analyze territorially specific patterns of social interactions that are bundled in the urban social milieu by inviting papers that address some of the following:

– communities as networks with a focus on social integration and mobility of migrants and/or minority groups;

– the role of specialized ties in promoting social support and network capital;

– how do homogeneous networks are conduit for social control and channels for the reproduction of inequalities? In other words, how does homophily is disadvantageous for lower-status groups?

– linkages over time between life stage experiences, relationships and changes in personal networks.

References

Chua, V., J. Madej, and B. Wellman (2011). Personal Communities: The World According To Me. In J. Scott & P. J. Carrington (Eds), The SAGE Handbook of Social Network Analysis, pp. 101-115. London: Sage Publications.

Domínguez, S. and Hollstein, B. (ed.) (2014). Mixed methods social networks research: design and applications. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Hannerz, U. (1980). Exploring the City: Inquiries Toward an Urban Anthropology (chapter 5: “Thinking with Networks”). New York: Columbia University Press.

McCarty, C., Lubbers, M. J., Vacca, R., & Molina, J. L. (2019). Conducting Personal Network Research: A Practical Guide. New York: Guilford Press.

Wellman, B. (2007). The Network is Personal: Introduction to a Special Issue of Social Networks. In Social Networks 29, 349–356.

ORGANIZERS

Lidia MANZO, lidia.manzo@unimi.it

Enzo COLOMBO, enzo.colombo@unimi.it

Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan (Italy)

HOW TO PRESENT A PAPER

Paper proposals can be sent by mail to lidia.manzo@unimi.it

The proposal should include both an abstract (max 400 words) and a short bio (max 250 words).

DEADLINE

14 August 2019

General inquiries can also be directed to Lidia Manzo at lidia.manzo@unimi.it