via SNA-DE:

Liebe Netzwerkgemeinde,

wir möchten Sie auf die von Iris Clemens und mir organisierte Session auf der Sunbelt in Montreal hinweisen.

Abstracts in den genannten Themenfeldern sind willkommen!

Herzliche Grüße und schönes Wochenende

Christian Stegbauer

Invitation to submit an abstract for a Sunbelt 2019 session (Montreal June 18-23) on Events, Situations and Small Networks

Situations are a basic component of network analysis. Relationships arises from the coming together of people (face-to-face or also medially). So we can state that networks have their origin in situations. When relationships are measured, e.g. by network generators in classical network analysis, they can be seen as a surrogate of a sequence of common situations. On the downside, situations can also be considered as one of the modes in two-mode network analysis. Situations can be modeled as events; however, what happens at an event is usually of no interest at all in network analysis.

The more network research is interested in these contents, the more likely it is to open up new and extended fields of investigation. Network research can explain how different cultures emerge and are distributed. In situations, ties are negotiated. Although relationships do follow general rules, all relationships differ from each other. In situations and repeated situations (chains of situations) a separate culture is negotiated. Such “small cultures” differ in regard to e.g. their symbols, preferences and behavior.

Nevertheless, situations are always framed, and they follow general context rules in addition to joint negotiations. In situations with few participants, negotiations are easier to conduct because conventions are easier to modify. For this reason, the potential for social innovation is most likely to be found there. Another problem is that of transmission: When cultural changes begin in situations, how is it possible that they become common sense?

The aim of this session is to bring together ideas and empiric work on the mentioned topics in network research: events, situations, the emergence, transmission and diffusion of culture, small networks and the impact of framing for the structure of networks. Submissions in the described field are very welcome.

Abstracts can be submitted by February 1, 2019 at https://www.fourwav.es/view/717/submission/.

Organizers: Christian Stegbauer (Goethe-University Frankfurt, Germany), Iris Clemens (Bayreuth-University, Germany)