Review Essay: Does Qualitative Network Analysis Exist?

Authors

  • Rainer Diaz-Bone Universität Luzern

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-8.1.224

Keywords:

social network analysis, mixed methods, triangulation, qualitative network analysis, structural analysis, ego-centered network analysis

Abstract

Social network analysis was formed and established in the 1970s as a way of analyzing systems of social relations. In this review the theoretical-methodological standpoint of social network analysis ("structural analysis") is introduced and the different forms of social network analysis are presented. Structural analysis argues that social actors and social relations are embedded in social networks, meaning that action and perception of actors as well as the performance of social relations are influenced by the network structure. Since the 1990s structural analysis has integrated concepts such as agency, discourse and symbolic orientation and in this way structural analysis has opened itself. Since then there has been increasing use of qualitative methods in network analysis. They are used to include the perspective of the analyzed actors, to explore networks, and to understand network dynamics. In the reviewed book, edited by Betina HOLLSTEIN and Florian STRAUS, the twenty predominantly empirically orientated contributions demonstrate the possibilities of combining quantitative and qualitative methods in network analyses in different research fields. In this review we examine how the contributions succeed in applying and developing the structural analysis perspective, and the self-positioning of "qualitative network analysis" is evaluated. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0701287

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Author Biography

Rainer Diaz-Bone, Universität Luzern

Rainer DIAZ-BONE, Dr. phil., Dipl. Soz.-Wiss., 1991 bis 1996 Studium der Sozialwissenschaft (Schwerpunkt: angewandte Sozialforschung) an der Ruhr-Universität Bochum, von 1996 bis 2001 Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Institut für Journalistik und Kommunikationsforschung (Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover), seit 2002 Wiss. Assistent am Institut für Soziologie (Freie Universität Berlin) im Lehrgebiet "Empirische Methoden und Statistik". Forschungsschwerpunkte: angewandte Diskursanalyse, empirische Kultur- und Sozialstrukturanalyse, Wirtschaftssoziologie, Methoden der empirischen Sozialforschung, Wissenschaftstheorie, sozialwissenschaftliche Statistik und Netzwerkanalyse. Rainer DIAZ-BONE hat in FQS bereits die Sammelbesprechung "Entwicklungen im Feld der foucaultschen Diskusanalyse" (http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/3-03/3-03review-diazbone-d.htm), den Artikel "Milieumodelle und Milieuinstrumente in der Marktforschung" (http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/2-04/2-04diazbone-d.htm), den Artikel "Zur Methodologisierung der Foucaultschen Diskursanalyse" (http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/1-06/06-1-6-d.htm) sowie die beiden Interviews "Operative Anschlüsse: Zur Entstehung der Foucaultschen Diskursanalyse in der Bundesrepublik. Jürgen Link im Gespräch mit Rainer Diaz-Bone" (http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/3-06/06-3-20-d.htm) und "Kritische Diskursanalyse: Zur Ausarbeitung einer problembezogenen Diskursanalyse im Anschluss an Foucault. Siegfried Jäger im Gespräch mit Rainer Diaz-Bone" (http://www.qualitative-research.net/fqs-texte/3-06/06-3-21-d.htm) veröffentlicht.

Published

2007-01-31

How to Cite

Diaz-Bone, R. (2007). Review Essay: Does Qualitative Network Analysis Exist?. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-8.1.224