CLASSIC vhb course: “Social Network Analysis (SNA) – methods, concepts, applications"

Increasingly, the globalised world is being organised in networks. The CLASSIC vhb course "Social Network Analysis (SNA) – methods, concepts, applications" from the Chair of Human Geography, aims to give students the empirical equipment to give them a better understanding of worldwide networking, the way it works, and the impacts it has. The on-line course is being developed for 2021.

Anyone attempting to describe the modern world in which we live will find it hard to avoid the term "network", one of the universal metaphors of our time. Terms such as "globalisation", "connectivity", "networking", and the well known "small world" and "global village" are all catchwords of our "network society". In the general network hype of the last few years, a research field has established itself across several disciplines, a field which understands networks not metaphorically, but explicitly as an empirical-analytical concept. In the centre of this research field is the methodological approach known as Social Network Analysis (SNA).

As a method of empirical social research, SNA is applied in various different specialist disciplines (e.g. geography, sociology, political science, ethnology, cultural sciences, and economics). Empirically, it aims to register the importance of network structures for the actions of the protagonists involved and the consequences of individual actions in networks for the networks themselves and beyond them. As a meso-perspective, network research closes the gap between societal macro-analyses and micro-investigations at individual level.

This CLASSIC vhb course will provide an introduction to the exciting and highly topical world of network research. The material learned includes basic concepts, methods and applications of SNA. Alongside the dissemination of basic theoretical and methodological knowledge, introductions to the analysis software UCInet and network visualisation programmes are also a central aspect of the course. Plenty of room is allowed for practical work, so that the participants can get fit for future theses or research of their own with this versatile, innovative method of empirical social research. The on-line course has been conceptualised by Professor Malte Steinbrink, Philipp Aufenvenne and Matthias Köhler of the Chair of Human Geography.

Principal Investigator(s) at the University	Prof. Dr. Malte Steinbrink (Lehrstuhl für Anthropogeographie), Philipp Aufenvenne
Project period	01.01.2021 - 30.06.2022
Source of funding	vhb - Virtuelle Hochschule Bayern