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Ethnography and Network Analysis 1999.Pdf Ethnography ant;'Network Analysis 211 nized critical relationships differently. Cross- nized or structured, and how that structure has cultural studiesidentified unexpecteddifferences an impact on individual lives. They describe the that led to the first studies of kinship groups, structural environmentof individuals, organiza- marriage patterns, and social and political orga- tions, and soci~ties. nizations in small societies. These were critical There are three primary anthropological findings, and are still a part of the overall infor- approachesto network studies.These are ethno- mation that is important for understanding cul- graphic descriptions of social networks (Bernard tural differences in people's daily lives. and Killworth 1973;Morrill 1991),personal net- As ethnographic research progressed, two work studies or ego-centerednetworks (Hammer different approaches to understanding cultural 1983; Shelley 1992),and the analysis of whole networks were explored. Pasternat (1976) networks (e.g., Rage and Rarary 1991).2 summarized the initial systematic approaches The social network approach has changed to the exploration of kinship groups, and rapidly during the last ten years, due to the ElizabethBott (1971)produced an ethnographic development of sophisticated data collection exploration of social networks in England. and analysis techniques,especially the develop- Theseworks representtwo theoretical and meth- ment of new statistical approaches to under- odological anchor points fo~ anthropologically standing complex relationships.3 Wasserman driven social network analysis. Pasternak and Faust (1994)provide an excellentintroduc- describesmethods for collecting and then com- tion to both the descriptiveand the probabilistic paring the ways that different cultures identify, statistical methods used to analyze spcial rela- label, and understand the genealogicalrelation- tionships. All of thesetechniques are based on ;'ships that are part of their culture. The Bott an attempt to find order in the relationships that ?~tudyprovides an in-depth exploration of the people create. The variety of important ques- Lintimate support networks that most people tions asked in different social science research use to survive in their culture, and provides a paradigms (anthropology, sociology, geography, (model for exploring these relationships across political science,and psychology)have resulted cultures..Following these studies, anthropol- in the social network approaches described in i;ogists conducted and systematically refined this chapter. The authors provide examples of +their examinations of informal and formal a wide range of fruitful research questions ~humangroups and associations,in conjunction answeredby a social network approach, includ- ~"Withwork go~g on in sociology, social psychol- ing studies of occupational mobility, the impact Jogy, and political science (Galaskiewicz and of urbanization on individual well-being, world .':ilWasserman1993; Johnson 1994; Wasserman political and economic systems,community elite ,~and Faust 1994). The combined approaches power and decision making, social support ~.~xpand.VJ our know.ledg.e of the ~ffects and research, group problem solving, the diffusion ::4ynalnlcs of both kinship and nonkin networks and adoption of innovations, interlocking cor- : all parts of human culture. This research porate directorates, cognition and social repre- ~i!g~~fr!?~ purely qualitative descriptions of sentation, markets, exchange relationships, (groups and associations,to quantitative social social influence,and the formation of coalitions, ~etwork schemasthat create network descrip- among others (Wassermanand Faust 1994:5-6). .on the algorithms of both graph There are three levels,of analysis that can be Each approach pro- simultaneouslyapplied to social networks. These insights into human cultures. In are analysesof the individual, the subgroup, and they provide powerful explana- the whole systemcharacteristics. At the indivi" the ways that hUmans think, act, and dual level, the analysis consists of describing their daily lives within their personal the relationships, position, and roles of the indi- . vidual in relation to other people in the network. network research describes relatIon- Each individual can be describedin terms of how relationships include physical con- his relationships connecthim with other people, --violence, supportive how information and influence can flow to or social contact (friendship, work from him (or through him to others), and how (com- his place in the network affectshis life by making impact, e-mail), or even him similar to, or different from, others in similar Different types of rela- or different kinds of roles and positions in his different cultural contexts in own or other networks. Individuals can also be Social network analysis defines described in terms of their membershipin sub- as kinship or friend- groups in the network, and their closenessor influence, communication, physi- distanceto other individuals. Analysis of the sub- or social support), and then group structure of the network consists of dis- those relationships are orga- covering, describing,and analyzing the effect of 212 Handbook of Social Studiesin Health and Medicine subgroups in the network and the connectionof those subgroupsto other groups and indiViduals. APPROACHESTO STUDYINGRELAnONSHIPS Iri larger networks, people tend to cluster into smaller groups. An example would be an extendedfamily. Kinship ties connect the entire Social network theory has commonly developed family to eachother. Each nuclear family would from the analysisof relationships, rather than an tend to have the closestties in our culture, but a priori theory of relationships. Anthropologists would still maintain contact with other nuclear noted differences in family structure in different families. The adults would tend to have the most cultures, and developed theory to account for direct connectionsand the most frequent direct those differences,rather than haVing the theory contacts,while their childrenwould be connected first, and finding the difference afterwards. The to the rest of the group through indirect ties same condition applies to many network (their mother lets them know what is happening approaches,where researchersfirst focused on to their cousins, aunts, and uncles) with much describing relationships, and then createdmeth- less frequent direct contact (family reunions). ods and theories to make those descriptionsand Network analysis allows researchersto identify analysesstronger over time. these subgroups within larger connected net- This observation-based approach to social works, and to analyze the impact that these relationships has produced different but comple- groups have on people'slives. Finally, a network mentary methodological approaches that are can be characterizedas a whole and compared 0 used in network analysis.These are the explora- with other networks. Network density (the num- tion of personal networks, egocentric networks, ber of connections between people compared chained or snowball network studies, and the with the number of potential connections),net- analysis of whole networks. These approaches work centrality measures,and transitiVity mea- are summarized in Table 1. sures (a measure of whether the connections of Each of these types of study has its own the- one indiVidual are also connected with each ory, methods, and appropriate researchinstru- other) are some of the technical measures of ments attached to it. The basic approachesare total network conditions. describedin the following sections. Table Approaches,foci, and methods of network analysis " Approach Focus Methods, Instruments ,',cO'i- I 'cj Questions about personal networks Standard questions about relationships and relationships from the perspective (McCallister and Fischer 1983) of the informant. (Burt and Minor ~t [c 1983) 1 Egocentric Description of individuals in personal Name generatorsand questions about networks and the relationships of interactions of those named both egq and the individuals named (Burt, 1984;Marsden 1990, 1993) by them to each other (Sarasonet al. 1983) Chainedor snowball Descriptions of linked and Survey instruments and name overlapping personal networks and generatorstied to chained sampling the relationships betweenindividuals designs(palmore 1967) and the whole population drawn from snowball samples,random walk designs (KlovdahlI989) Full network Identification of relationships in a Relationship matrix, membershiplists, bounded community (Knoke and questions about relationships between Kuklinski, 1982) all member~of the co=unity (Wassermanand Faust, 1994) ~ Ethnographyand Network Analysis 213 PersonalNetworks naire, collects additional information from the informant's perspective about the relationships The personal network approach focuses on indi- betweenthe other people mentionedby the vidual informants and their personal relation- informant, as part of the informant's personal ships. The focus of this type of study is to network, These two approaches,combined or identify similarities and differencesin individual singly, answer many important questions about relationship environments. This is often called cultural conditions beyond the individual level.. ego-centerednetwork analysis. Each individual is assumedto exist in a structured social context. That context may have very similar effects for PersonalNetwork Questions individuals who have the same type of contex- tual environment, and
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