Elisa Bellotti

What are friends for? Elective communities of single people

Abstract The paper presents the results of a qualitative research on friendship networks of single people. The research has been undertaken using social network analysis tools (egonetworks) and qualitative interviews, on a non-representative sample of 23 heterosexual singles of Milan, aged between 25 and 35 years, 12 male and 11 female. Framed within the theory of community, we formulated some questions that are addressed through the analysis: the role of friendship in single peoples everyday life, which in some cases substitutes the traditional family as a source of emotional, social, material and economical support; the possibility that friendship is not always intended as a source of support, and people can name friends even if they do not provide any kind of support; the effect of the network structure on the strength of dyads, that will easily disconnect if not embedded in a cohesive network. Four different kinds of friendship networks have been found: the small cliques, the company, the core/periphery structure, and the contextualised components. In the discussion section, empirical findings are analysed focusing on different strategies of friendship, and special attention is given to the gender issue.

Getting funded. Multi-level network of physicists in Italy

Abstract Much of the work in the sociology of science observes scientific communities from a micro perspective, focusing on interactions in laboratories in order to uncover the impact of social and cultural norms in the everyday production of scientific results. Other studies approach the topic from a macro perspective, analysing scientific organizations and the reciprocal influence they have with wider society, or uncovering the invisible colleges that become apparent through the analysis of co-authorship and citations’ patterns. Less attention has been paid to the meso level of interaction within and between scientists and the institutions they work in. This paper extends the structural approach of Lazega et al. (2008. Catching up with big fish in the big pond? Multi-level network analysis through linked design. Social Networks 30, 157–176) and analyses the local system of public funding to physics in Italy using bipartite networks. Data cover 10 years of funding of Projects of National Interest (Prin) from the Italian Ministry of University and Research. The micro level (collaborations between scientists), macro level (collaborations between institutions) and meso level (the combination of network measures at a micro and macro level) of interactions are independently analysed, and results are used to model the total amount of money physicists have received over the 10 years against the variables that meaningfully describe the network structure of collaborations. Results show that in order to be successfully funded what counts more than being a big fish (a scientist with a lot of connections) working in a big pond (a large University), is being in a brokerage position interacting over the years with different research groups.

Brokerage roles between cliques: A secondary clique analysis

A common goal when analyzing a social network is to try and determine the cohesive subgroup structure of the network. Some techniques result in complex overlapping structures such as cliques or k-plexes whereas others either partition the network or place actors into unique groups, for example factions or components. A standard method implemented in Ucinet uses the overlapping structure to construct a proximity matrix which can be submitted to a clustering routine to find non-overlapping groups. Once the groups have been determined many analysts relate these to observations they have made involving their data. There are few techniques that take the groups as a starting point for additional analysis with the exception of Krachardts work on Simelian ties. In this paper I examine the roles the actors play in the cohesive structure using the brokerage ideas of Gould and Fernandez. The method is demonstrated on an original dataset that was collected in 2006 on 100 social services based in a suburb area of Milan, Italy. The dataset is composed of a matrix that contains directed data collected by asking the spokesperson of every social service if he/she knows the other services listed (the list of services having been previously compiled using several sources), together with attribute information. The matrix is analyzed using the clique analysis techniques in the Ucinet software package to find non-overlapping groups. The results are submitted to Ucinets brokerage routine and visualized using the Netdraw software package. This analysis offers a new insight into the data, as it is possible to identify what actors play important roles (and which kind of role) in bridging the gaps between the cohesive subgroups.

Networks of practices in critical consumption

This article proposes some theoretical and methodological advancements in the study of critical consumption within the framework of the theory of practices. It does so by applying an innovative analytic technique based on network analysis: using data from a survey of a representative sample of the Italian population, we analyze the structure of connections between variables at different levels of correlations, and then we focus on some interesting local neighborhoods that suggest elements for interpretative frameworks. The aim of this article is to explore whether it is possible to consider critical consumption as a practice, and if so what are the elements that characterize it as an entity. We also aim to observe whether these elements are connected to other (not necessarily sustainable) practices. Results do not show robust and coherent connections of elements that allow speaking of critical consumption as a practice, but they identify interesting anchor points where ethnographic approaches can be directed. These crossroads, where bundles of elements encounter, suggest the existence of loose knits of activities where competences and meanings of different practices encounter and contaminate.

Comparing Fields of Sciences: Multilevel Networks of Research Collaborations in Italian Academia

In this chapter we model the multilevel structure of scientific work, looking at social networks of collaborations between scientists, and at how these networks are embedded in disciplinary and organizational levels. Once the relational structure of scientific collaboration is described, we look at the role that it plays in scholars’ successes. We adopt the linked-design approach to analyse the local system of public funding to academic disciplines in Italy using bipartite networks across disciplinary areas. We thus analyse the mechanisms that lie beyond the structure of research project collaborations in Italian academia. We find that individual attributes (being a national coordinator, a full professor, and having being promoted) play a role in getting funded. It is however the position of being a broker across otherwise unconnected research groups that makes a difference in the total amount of funding received by a scientist over the years under analysis, in some cases combined with egonet closure. These results confirm the importance of looking at individual network properties when analyzing scientific collaborations. Leadership is a characteristic that seems to be related both to career achievements (becoming a full professor) and to the capability of attracting multiple research groups for scientific collaborations.

Qualitative Methods and Visualizations in the Study of Friendship Networks

One of the most powerful aspects of social network data is the fact that they can reproduce social relationships in a formal and comparable way. Relational matrices abstract from the hustle and bustle of everyday interaction, and systematise information in terms of presence or absence of ties expressing them in a directed or undirected, binary or valued form. While the formal approach represents an advantage of social network analysis, as it allows bracketing off the idiosyncratic and subjective content of social structures, the mathematization of the complex nature of social relationships has also been criticised for the lack of engagement with the subjective meaning and context of relationships. Such stream of critique has called for an increase of use of qualitative methods in social network research. The first goal of the paper is to address these critiques by rebalancing the argument and showing how social network analysis has always engaged with both formal and contextual aspects of social structures. The paper reviews some theoretical perspectives that discuss and systematise a mixed method approach, and explores the methodological advantages of using network visualizations together with qualitative interviews in the collection, analysis and interpretation of personal networks. The advantages of adopting a mixed method approach are illustrated over some examples of friendship networks of 23 single male and female people collected in Milan, Italy, in 2005. A classic name generator is used to reconstruct their egonets of friends, and the visualization is adopted as the input for in-depth interviews with specific attention devoted to the meaning of friendship relationships, the kind of resources they offer, the conflicts and constrains they entail, and how they have developed and evolved over time. By comparing information obtained respectively with name generators and in-depth interviews, the paper shows how the mix of data improves and specify the understanding of personal networks.

Counterfeit Alcohol Distribution: A Criminological Script Network Analysis

This paper analyses a series of subsequent and connected investigations by a domestic European regulator on the network of distribution of counterfeit alcohol across two jurisdictions. The analysis mixes script analysis, a narrative framework for enhancing the understanding of how crimes unfold and are organized, with multi-node multi-link social network analysis, to observe the social structure in which crime scripts take place. We focus our attention on the key players that occupy strategic positions within the network of the crime commission process, from where they overview and control the various phases (scenes) and perform brokerage activities across the scenes, and on strategies of concealment of illicit products beyond the facade of legitimate business. Our findings indicate that actors in charge of managing the proceeds of the criminal activity are also the ones better positioned to monitor the entire process. The overall structure of the criminal network shows a good level of resilience and efficiency, although actors do not adopt common traits of a criminal lifestyle that facilitate secrecy and covertness. We believe that, by shifting the analysis from the nature of the group organization to the network of links between all the aspects of a crime commission process, the organizational structure and its weakest links become more detectable, easier to compare across proto- and meta-scripts, and ultimately more prone to situational preventive measures.

Le dinamiche delle reti e dei legami amicali

The paper presents the results of a research on friendship networks of single people. The research has been undertaken using both social network analysis tools (egonetworks) and qualitative interviews, on a non-representative sample of 23 heterosexual singles of Milan, aged between 25 and 35, 12 male and 11 female. Single youths has been portrayed as a generation who decentres sexual and romantic relationships and refuses to commit: this paper demonstrates the need for new analytical concepts in order to describe the contemporary transformations of intimacy, that underline the importance of friendship for single youth. In order to focus on the dynamics of friendship, an heuristic model has been set up, which analyses the influences of the constitutional dimensions of friendship (ideal, negotional and situational). The modifications of one of these three analytical dimensions reflect on the others in a reflexive process that shows how friendship networks and ties evolve through time and keep a strong core of long lasting bonds.