Qualitative Networks: Mixed Methods in Sociological Research

How do we interact with people in our everyday life? Who are the people we are connected to? What are the consequences of overlapping social circles and how people deal with the potential emerging conflicts? What are the structural and cultural mechanisms that regulate social worlds? Network science is a scientific approach to the study of network dependencies and associations which tries to answer these and many other questions. This book explores the underlying mechanisms that regulate social life as they are produced, reproduced, modified, and abandoned in the spatial and temporal patterns of interactions. The mixed methods approach, that combines formal network analysis with qualitative materials and statistical tools, shows the importance of contextualising structural mechanisms in their social and cultural environment, and allows overcoming the traditional methodological boundaries that shape the field of social sciences.

Elisa Bellotti is lecturer in sociology at the University of Manchester and a member of the Mitchell Centre for Social Network Analysis. Before arriving in Manchester in 2008, she worked as research fellow at University of Turin and University of Bozen, Italy. She completed a Ph.D in Sociology and Methodology of Social Research in 2006 at Catholic University of Milan. She publishes in international peer reviewed journals. Among her recent publications: "Getting funded. Multi-level network of Physicists in Italy." (2012) Social Networks 34, 2: 215-229 and the monograph Amicizie. Le reti amicali dei giovani single. (2008) Milano: Franco Angeli.