Analysing Personal Networks in Geographical Space Beyond the Question of Distance

Claire Bidart, Marion Maisonobe and Gil Viry
Additional contact information
Claire Bidart: LEST, CNRS, Aix Marseille Univ, France
Marion Maisonobe: Géographie‐cités, CNRS, France
Gil Viry: School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, UK

Social Inclusion, 2022, vol. 10, issue 3, 233-247

Abstract: Recent literature recognises the importance of situating social networks in spatial context. Yet, the spatial analysis of personal networks has often been limited to examining residential distances between actors. While distance is a central characteristic of social relationships, it is a poor indicator for understanding the intricacies of the geographical space, places and personal networks. This study develops an original approach for mapping and analysing personal networks based on their geographical scope and the distribution of the residential locations of network members in relevant geographical areas. We perform a factor and cluster analysis to identify the major geographical patterns of personal networks using two samples of egocentric networks from France and Switzerland. We validate the approach first by interpreting the patterns both quantitatively and qualitatively, and second by examining how these patterns relate to important social characteristics of respondents and their personal networks. We conclude by discussing the significance of this approach for integrating geographical information into the analysis of personal networks and for rethinking networks and the geographical space as co‐constituted.

Keywords: distance; geographical space; mixed methods; personal networks; place; social network analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.cogitatiopress.com/socialinclusion/article/view/5381 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:socinc:v10:y:2022:i:3:p:233-247

DOI: 10.17645/si.v10i3.5381

Access Statistics for this article

Social Inclusion is currently edited by Mariana Pires

More articles in Social Inclusion from Cogitatio Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by António Vieira () and IT Department ().