Sunbelt XXXI International Network for Social Network ... - INSNA

Mapping Networks: Spatial Visualizations Of Global Commodity Flows 1980‐2009Nag, ManishGeographic and Social SpaceVisualization, Globalisation, GeographyWED.PM2Sociologists from the time of Simmel have noted the power of space in determining the form and content of social relations. Space has also beenacknowledged as a key factor in determining the form and content of social networks, exemplified by McPherson and Smith‐Lovin's discussion of "geographicalpropinquity" and homophily. Though social network analysis has long used graphs to visualize actors and ties, the state of the art in network graphs does notintegrate a sense of space. This paper seeks to intersect space and social networks by providing a new method for mapping network data over geographicspace. Benefits to this approach are shown, particularly in the area of longitudinal visualizations of network data. In addition, a new website will bedemonstrated that allows users to interactively create network maps using a new dataset of global commodity flows from 1980 to 2009. The website providesa tool for researchers and students to investigate the flows of individual commodities, bundles of commodities, and total trade between nations over time. Thetool provides immediate benefits to scholars of globalization, world systems, developmnt, and trade inequality.Mapping Schemas With Qualitative DataRackin, Heather M.Qualitative and Mixed Method Network studiesText AnalysisSUN.AM1Network text analysis techniques are explicitly relational, i.e. words have no meaning except in relation to other words. These methods connect words used inthe same document or paragraph, which builds a map of interconnected concepts. Clusters of concepts that are often spoken together signal schemas. Here, Iextend such techniques to the much richer, though empirically more complicated, free‐form settings of real life captured in ethnographic transcripts. Icompare meanings of family derived from ethnographic transcripts of low income women with and without children to examine how life course transitionsaffect schematic structures.