Stop. Take a moment to look around. What do you see? No matter where you are, you are likely perceiving a world consisting of things. Maybe you are reading this book in a coffee shop, and if so, you probably see people, cups, books, chairs, and so on. You see a world of objects with properties, yourself included: white cups are on wooden tables, people sitting in chairs are reading books and talking with one another. At the same time, you are a subject, responding to this world and actively bringing yourself and these objects into interrelation. And yet, the world of objects with properties that you are perceiving is but one slice of a complex reality.

A reflection on J. Clyde Mitchell’s (1969) classic piece “The concept and use of social networks”. In the piece, Mitchell lays out the “known world” of social network analysis, discussing fundamental concepts, theory and methods. Looked at 50 years later, we see much that is core to how we think about networks today, but we also see some differences. Network perspectives today are often associated with a structuralist sensibility that emphasizes opportunities and constraints and de-emphasizes meanings and agency. In contrast, Mitchell plays up opportunities and agency and is very interested in meanings and relational norms. His view of relationships as micro-contexts for interpreting interactions is interesting and has bearing on several “modern” areas of research, including dormant ties (Levin, Walter and Murnighan 2011), situationally activated networks (Smith, Menon and Thompson 2012) and network dynamics.