Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T04:21:57.326Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

10 - Reconstructing Social Networks through Text Analysis

From Text Networks to Narrative Actor Networks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2014

By
Joan Miquel Verd  and
Carlos Lozares
Edited by
Silvia Domínguez  and
Betina Hollstein
Joan Miquel Verd
Affiliation:
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Carlos Lozares
Affiliation:
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Silvia Domínguez
Affiliation:
Northeastern University, Boston
Betina Hollstein
Affiliation:
Universität Bremen
Get access

Summary

Introduction

The combined use of quantitative and qualitative methods is almost as old as sociological research, but this combination has only recently come to the forefront of the methodological debate. This is shown by the large number of reference works advocating a high level of methodological integration (Tashakkori and Teddlie 1998, 2003; Creswell 2003; Brewer and Hunter 2006; Creswell and Plano Clark 2007; Bergman 2008) that have been published since the late 1990s. However, works of this type have often limited their focus to the stage of gathering data. The methodological literature is fairly lacking in presenting and discussing strategies of analysis in which the data analysis is neither strictly quantitative (mathematical) nor strictly qualitative (interpretive). This chapter presents and discusses one example of this kind of analysis as applied to narrative interviews.

More precisely, this chapter presents an analysis procedure in which, from information obtained through qualitative techniques (narrative-biographical interviews) matrices of relations between actors are drawn up and analyzed using standard (quantitative) procedures of social network analysis. It is important to note that this transformation of narrative information from the interviews into a matrix of quantified data is preceded by a preliminary stage in which an interpretively generated code takes into account the syntactic and semantic nature of the text of the interviews. This strategy prevents loss of information about the content of the texts and respects the articulation of the textual units. The second stage, of transforming the already interpreted qualitative data to matrix form and submitting them to the corresponding algebra, can be described, in mixed methods terminology, as a “quantitizing strategy” (Tashakkori and Teddlie 1998:126; Onwuegbuzie and Teddlie 2003:355) or a “quantitative translation” (Boyatzis 1998:129). The particularity of our analysis lies in the fact that the quantitative data obtained are of a relational rather than a purely statistical-attributive nature.

Type
Chapter
Information
Mixed Methods Social Networks Research
Design and Applications
 , pp. 269 - 304
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abell, Peter. 1987. The Syntax of Social Life. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Abell, Peter 1988. “The ‘structuration’ of action. Inference and comparative narratives.” Pp. 185–198 in Actions and Structure. Research Methods and Social Theory, edited by Fielding, Nigel G.. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Bazeley, Pat. 2003. “Computerized data analysis of Mixed Methods Research.” Pp. 385–422 in Handbook of Mixed Methods in Social and Behavioral Research, edited by Tashakkori, Abbas and Teddlie, Charles. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Bearman, Peter S. and Stovel, Katherine. 2000. “Becoming a Nazi: A model for narrative networks.” Poetics 27:69–90.Google Scholar
Bearman, Peter S., Faris, Robert, and Moody, James. 1999. “Blocking the future: New solutions for old problems in historical social science.” Social Science History 23:501–533.Google Scholar
Bergman, Manfred Max, ed. 2008. Advances in Mixed Methods Research. London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bidart, Claire. 2009. “En busca del contenido de las redes sociales: los ‘motivos’ de las relaciones.” REDES. Revista Hispana para el Análisis de Redes Sociales, 16, # 7. Retrieved November 30, 2009, from .Google Scholar
Bidart, Claire and Lavenu, Daniel. 2005. “Evolution of personal networks and life events.” Social Networks 27:359–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyatzis, Richard E. 1998. Transforming Qualitative Information: Thematic Analysis and Code Development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Brandes, Ulrik and R.Corman, Steven, 2003. “Visual unrolling of network evolution and the analysis of dynamic discourse.” Information Visualization 2(1):40–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breiger, Ronald L. 2000. “A tool kit for practice theory.” Poetics 27:91–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brewer, John and Hunter, Albert. 2006. Foundations of Multimethod Research. Synthesizing Styles. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryman, Alan. 2007. “Barriers to integrating quantitative and qualitative research.” Journal of Mixed Methods Research 1(1):8–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carley, Kathleen M. 1993. “Coding choices for textual analysis: A comparison of content analysis and map analysis.” Sociological Methodology 23: 75–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carley, Kathleen M 1994. “Extracting culture through textual analysis.” Poetics 22: 291–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carley, Kathleen M 1997. “Network text analysis: The network position of concepts.” Pp. 79–100 in Text Analysis for the Social Sciences: Methods for Drawing Statistical Inferences from Texts and Transcripts, edited by Roberts, Carl W.. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Carley, Kathleen M. and Palmquist, Michael E.. 1992. “Extracting, representing, and analyzing mental models.” Social Forces 70(3):601–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corman, Steven R., Kuhn, Timothy, Mcphee, Robert D., and Dooley, Kevin J.. 2002. “Studying complex discursive systems: Centering resonance analysis of communication.” Human Communication Research 28(2):157–206.Google Scholar
Creswell, John W. 2003. Research Design. Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Creswell, John W. and Clark, Vicky L. Plano. 2007. Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
van Cuilenburg, Jan J., Kleinnijenhuis, Jan, and de Ridder, Jan A.. 1988. “Artificial intelligence and content analysis. Problems of and strategies for computer text analysis.” Quality & Quantity 22:65–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Danowski, James A. 1988. “Organizational infographics and automated auditing: Using computers to unobstrusively gather as well as analyze communication.” Pp. 385–433 in Handbook of Organizational Communication, edited by Goldhaber, Gerald M. and Barnett, George A.. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Danowski, James A 1993. “Network analysis of message content.” Progress in Communication Sciences 12:198–221.Google Scholar
Danowski, James Aand Park, David W.. 2009. “Networks of the dead or alive in cyberspace: Public intellectuals in the mass and internet media.” New Media & Society 11(3):337–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Degenne, Alain and Forsé, Michel. 1999. Introducing Social Networks. London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Degenne, Alain and Lebeux, Marie-Odile. 2005. “The dynamics of personal networks at the time of entry into adult life.” Social Networks 27: 337–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diesner, Jana and Carley, Kathleen M.. 2004. “Using network text analysis to detect the organizational structure of covert networks.” Proceedings of the North American Association for Computational Social and Organizational Science (NAACSOS) 2004 Conference. Pittsburgh, PA.Google Scholar
van Dijk, Teun A. 1998. Ideology. A Multidisciplinary Approach. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Doerfel, Marya L. 1998. “What constitutes semantic network analysis? A comparison of research and methodologies.” Connections 21(2):16–26.Google Scholar
Erikson, Bonnie H. 1982. “Networks, ideologies and belief systems.” Pp. 159–72 in Social Structure and Network Analysis, edited by Marsden, Peter V. and Lin, Nan. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Escobar, Modesto. 2009. “Redes semánticas en textos periodísticos: propuestas técnicas para su representación.” Empiria. Revista de Metodología de Ciencias Sociales 17:13–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeman, Cornelia A. and Barnett, George A.. 1994. “An alternative approach to using interpretative theory to examine corporate messages and organizational culture.” Pp. 60–73 in Organization Communication. Emerging Perspectives. Volume IV, edited by Thayer, Lee and Barnett, George A.. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Gartrell, C. David. 1987. “Network approaches to social evaluation.” Annual Review of Sociology 13:49–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heise, David R. 1991. “Event structure analysis: A qualitative model of quantitative research.” Pp. 136–163 in Using Computers in Qualitative Research, edited by Fielding, Nigel G. and Lee, Raymond M.. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Jang, Ha-Yong and Barnett, George A.. 1994. “Cultural differences in organizational communication: A semantic network analysis.” Bulletin de Méthodologie Sociologique 44:31–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenny, Jacques. 1997. “Méthodes et pratiques formalisées d’analyse de contenu et de discours dans la recherche sociologique contemporaine. Etats des lieux et classification.” Bulletin de Méthodologie Sociologique 54: 64–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kleinnijenhuis, Jan, Ridder, Jan A. de, and Rietberg, Ewald M.. 1997. “Reasoning in economic discourse: An application of the network approach to the Dutch press.” Pp. 191–207 in Text Analysis for the Social Sciences: Methods for Drawing Statistical Inferences from Texts And Transcripts, edited by Roberts, Carl W.. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Leydesdorff, Loet. 2004. “The university-industry knowledge relationship: Analyzing patents and the science base of technologies.” Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 55(11): 991–1001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leydesdorff, Loet and Hellsten, Iina. 2005. “Metaphors and diaphors in science communication: Mapping the case of ‘stem-cell research’.” Science Communication 27(1):64–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lozares, Carlos. 2000. “El discurs reticular, més enllà de la classificació.” Revista Catalana de Sociologia 11: 183–9.Google Scholar
Lozares, Carlos 2006. “Las representaciones fácticas y cognitivas del relato de entrevistas biográficas: un análisis del discurso.” REDES. Revista Hispana para el Análisis de Redes Sociales 10, #8. Retrieved November 30, 2009, from .Google Scholar
Lozares, Carlos and Verd, Joan Miquel. 2008. “La entrevista biográfico-narrativa como expresión contextualizada, situacional y dinámica de la red socio-personal.” REDES. Revista Hispana para el Análisis de Redes Sociales 15, #6. Retrieved November 30, 2009, from .Google Scholar
Lozares, Carlos, Verd, Joan Miquel, Martí, Joel, and López, Pedro. 2003. “Relaciones, redes y discurso: revisión y propuestas en torno al análisis reticular de datos textuales.” Revista Española de Investigaciones Sociológicas 101:175–200.Google Scholar
Maida, Anthony S. and Shapiro, Stuart C.. 1982. “Intensional concepts in propositional semantic networks.” Cognitive Science 6:291–330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martí, Joel. 2000. Formació i ocupació en el discurs dels treballadors. Una proposta metodològica. Doctoral Thesis. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Departament of Sociology.Google Scholar
Martí, Joel 2006. “Representación de estructuras argumentativas mediante el análisis de redes sociales.” REDES. Revista Hispana para el Análisis de Redes Sociales 10, #4. Retrieved November 30, 2009, from .Google Scholar
Martin, John Levi 2000. “What do animals do all day? The division of labor, class bodies, and totemic thinking in the popular imagination.” Poetics 27: 195–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Meter, Karl M. 1999. “Social capital research literature: Analysis of keyword content structure and the comparative contribution of author names.” Connections 22(1):62–84.Google Scholar
van Meter, Karl M 2006. “Authors as ‘artitsts’ or ‘heavy weights’ in scientific publishing: The sociological analysis of scientific literature and the BMS.” Bulletin de Méthodologie Sociologique 91:25–39.Google Scholar
van Meter, Karl M. and Léger, Mathilde de Saint. 2008. “Co-word text analysis applied to political science: 2006 international political and ‘parapolitical’ headlines.” Bulletin de Méthodologie Sociologique 97:18–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKether, Willie L., Gluesing, Julia C., and Riopelle, Kenneth. 2009. “From interviews to social network analysis: An approach for revealing social networks embedded in narrative data.” Field Methods 21(2):154–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minor, Michael J. 1983. “Panel data on ego networks: A longitudinal study of former heroin addicts.” Pp. 89–99 in Applied Network Analysis, edited by Burt, Ronald S. and Minor, Michael J.. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Mohr, John W. 1994. “Soldiers, mothers, tramps and others: Discourse roles in the 1907 New York City charity directory.” Poetics 22:327–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mohr, John W 1998. “Measuring meaning structures.” Annual Review of Sociology 24: 345–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monge, Peter R. and Eisenberg, Eric M.. 1987. “Emergent communication networks”. Pp. 304–42 in Handbook of Organizational Communication. An Interdisciplinary Perspective, edited by Jablin, Frederic M., Putnam, Linda L., Roberts, Karlene H., and Porter, Lyman W.. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Onwuegbuzie, Anthony J. and Teddlie, Charles. 2003. “A framework for analyzing data in mixed methods research.” Pp. 351–83 in Handbook of Mixed Methods in Social and Behavioral Research, edited by Tashakkori, Abbas and Teddlie, Charles. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Palmquist, Michael E., Carley, Kathleen M., and Dale, Thomas A.. 1997. “Applications of computer-aided text analysis: Analyzing literary and nonliterary texts.” Pp. 171–89 in Text Analysis for the Social Sciences: Methods for Drawing Statistical Inferences from Texts and Transcripts, edited by Roberts, Carl W.. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Popping, Roel. 2000. Computer-Assisted Text Analysis. London: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Popping, Roel 2003. “Knowledge graphs and network text analysis.” Social Science Information 42:91–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Popping, Roel 2005. “Representation of developments in labour market research.” Quality & Quantity 39:241–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, Everett M. and Kincaid, D. Lawrence. 1981. Communication Networks. Toward a New Paradigm for Research. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Ryan, Gery W. and Bernard, H. Russell. 2000. “Data management and analysis methods.” Pp. 769–802 in Handbook of Qualitative Research, edited by Denzin, Norman K. and Lincoln, Yvonna S.. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Schnegg, Michael. 1997. Words as Actors II: Semantic Communities and Their Overlap. Communication presented at the Qualitative Data Analysis Workshop, July 1997, Geneva University.Google Scholar
Smith, Tammy. 2007. “Narrative boundaries and the dynamics of ethnic conflict and conciliation.” Poetics 35: 22–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stohl, Cynthia. 1993. “European managers’ interpretations of participation. A semantic network analysis.” Human Communication Research 20: 97–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strauss, Anselm L. and Corbin, Juliet M.. 1990. Basics of Qualitative Research. Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Suitor, J. Jill, Wellman, Barry, and Morgan, David L., eds. 1997. “Change in networks.” Social Networks 19(1).Google Scholar
Tashakkori, Abbas and Teddlie, Charles. 1998. Mixed Methodology. Combining Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Tashakkori, Abbas and Charles Teddlie, C., eds. 2003. Handbook of Mixed Methods in Social and Behavioral Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Verd, Joan Miquel. 2002. Itinerario biográfico, recursos formativos y empleo. Una aproximación integrada de carácter teórico y metodológico. Doctoral Thesis. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Departament of Sociology.Google Scholar
Verd, Joan Miquel 2005. “El uso de la teoría de redes sociales en la representación y análisis de textos. De las redes semánticas al análisis de redes textuales.” Empiria. Revista de Metodología de Ciencias Sociales 10: 129–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verd, Joan Miquel 2006. “La construcción de indicadores biográficos mediante el análisis reticular del discurso. Una aproximación al análisis narrativo-biográfico.” REDES. Revista Hispana para el Análisis de Redes Sociales 10, #4. Retrieved November 30, 2009, from .Google Scholar
Verd, Joan Miquel 2007. “Análisis de narraciones sociobiográficas: una visión reticular, cognitiva y social.” Pp. 235–75 in Interacción, redes sociales y ciencias cognitivas, edited by Lozares, Carlos. Granada, SP: Comares.Google Scholar
Wasserman, Stanley and Faust, Katherine. 1994. Social Network Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wellman, Barry. 1979. “The community question: the intimate networks of East Yorkers.” American Journal of Sociology 83:1201–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, Harrison C. 2009. “Redes e historias.” REDES. Revista Hispana para el Análisis de Redes Sociales 16, #1. Retrieved November 30, 2009, from .Google Scholar
Woods, William A. 1975. “What’s in a link: Foundations for Semantic Networks.” Pp. 35–82 in Representation and Understanding. Studies in Cognitive Science, edited by Bobrow, Daniel G. and Collins, Allan M.. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Woods, William A 1991. “Understanding subsumption and taxonomy: A framework for progress.” Pp. 45–94 in Principles of Semantic Networks, edited by Sowa, John F.. San Mateo, CA: Morgan Kaufmann.Google Scholar
Wuehrer, Gerhard A. and Kathan, Markus. 2001. “Structures of Managerial Decisions in Export Strategies Formulaion. Cognitive Maps of Austrian Managers.” Communication presented at the XXIst International Sunbelt Social Network Conference. September 25–29, 2001. Budapest.Google Scholar
Yeung, King-To. 2005. “What does love mean? Exploring network culture in two network settings.” Social Forces, 84(1):391–420.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×