Theme 4 Integrative Project
Convenors:
Mike Savage ( mike.savage@manchester.ac.uk ),
Penny Harvey ( penny.harvey@manchester.ac.uk ) and
Hannah Knox ( hannah.knox@manchester.ac.uk )
The idea of the network has become central to contemporary understandings of social life, yet it is used in numerous different ways, and is not always subject to critical review. Creating networks can be seen as a 'good thing' in its own right.
The integrative project involves both anthropologists and sociologists interested in exploring the idea of the network as a key motif in contemporary social and cultural forms. The inquiry will explore the kinds of absences, as well as connections, which network thinking allows. This issue will be considered at the same time that we ourselves use different kinds of network method, including social network analysis. Our focus will be on three related issues: can new kinds of network sociality be detected, and if so, with what kinds of implications; how can social network deal with issues of culture and cultural networks, and how can we explore the 'network as cultural form'. This inquiry draws on an unusual combination of social scientists with methodological, theoretical, and substantive interests in network ideas.
See also, Working Paper No.1, Social networks and spatial relations: networks as method, metaphor and form by Hannah Knox, Mike Savage & Penny Harvey.