Three networks walk into a bar...

Clay Spinuzzi, clay.spinuzzi@utexas.

edu

“When we talk about ‘networks’ are we talking about technologies, or societal organizations, or both? Or are we simply projecting the latest metaphor into any and every kind of social relationship we can see?” — Milton Mueller

We could ask...Arquilla

Barabasi

Boisot

Burt

Callon

Castells

Child

Engestrom

Grabher

Granovetter

Hughes

Krackhardt

Latour

Law

Miettinen

Mol

Mueller

Nardi

Polodny

Ronfeldt

Small

Thompson

(Social) Network analysisNodes: can be anything, as long as they are a specific type of thing

Links/edges: Can be any relationship, as long as it’s a specific type of relationship

Analysis: Typically quantitative

The network is: a frame of analysis

Sociotechnical networksNodes: can be anything, often of any category

Links/edges: Can be any relationship, as long as participants interpret it as a relationship

Analysis: Typically qualitative

The network is: a frame of analysis

Organizational networksNodes: are people

Links/edges: Are lines of alliance and authority (communication, coordination, cooperation)

Analysis: Often qualitative, sometimes quantitative

The network is: a phenomenon

The three networks, compared

Social Network Analysis

Sociotechnical Networks

Networked Organizations

The network is... Analysis Analysis Phenomenon

Nodes are... Homogeneous (human beings)

Heterogeneous (human and nonhuman actants)

Homogeneous (human beings)

Links are ... Homogeneous (communicative connections)

Heterogeneous (rhetorical and cognitive associations)

Heterogeneous (communicative connections and lines of authority)

Data collection methods are ...

Quantitative Qualitative Quantitative and qualitative

Questions?