Marion MAISONOBE, Junior researcher (CNRS) and a member of Géographie-cités, coedited with Gil Viry (School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, UK), Christoph van Dülmen (Thünen Institute of Rural Studies, Germany) and Andreas Klärner (Thünen Institute of Rural Studies, Germany): Social Inclusion, 2022, Volume 10, Issue 3, On the Role of Space, Place, and Social Networks in Social Participation.
Recent literature recognises the importance of situating social networks in spatial contexts to better understand how space, place, and social networks interact and are co‐constituted. Despite this call, the mainstream literature in social network analysis pays relatively little attention to spatial dimensions of social networks and remains largely disconnected from the vast body of research on spatial networks in geography and cognate fields. This thematic issue is one step towards advancing this research agenda by examining how such an approach relates to issues of social inclusion and social participation. It includes a selection of studies that focus on the relation between space and social networks across a wide variety of research fields and contexts. Contributions use original, often mixed‐method approaches and multiple perspectives for capturing the role of space and people’s experience of place in network formation through physical, cultural, and geographical dimensions.
In this issue, read:
Claire Bidart, Marion Maisonobe, Gil Viry. Analysing Personal Networks in Geographical Space Beyond the Question of Distance. In Social Inclusion, Vol 10, No 3 (2022): On the Role of Space, Place, and Social Networks in Social Participation.
Abstract: Recent literature recognises the importance of situating social networks in spatial contexts to better understand how space, place, and social networks interact and are co-constituted. Despite this call, the mainstream literature in social network analysis pays relatively little attention to spatial dimensions of social networks and remains largely disconnected from the vast body of research on spatial networks in geography and cognate fields. This thematic issue is one step towards advancing this research agenda by examining how such an approach relates to issues of social inclusion and social participation. It includes a selection of studies that focus on the relation between space and social networks across a wide variety of research fields and contexts. Contributions use original, often mixed method approaches and multiple perspectives for capturing the role of space and people’s experience of place in network formation through physical, cultural, and geographical dimensions. We conclude this editorial by briefly suggesting areas for future research.
Cogitatio is a publisher founded in 2014 with the aim of promoting open-access divulgation of scientific knowledge. Social Inclusion (ISSN: 2183-2803) is a peer-reviewed open access journal which provides academics and policy-makers with a forum to discuss and promote a more socially inclusive society.
Marion Maisonobe is a junior researcher in geography at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). She studies the spatial diffusion of knowledge and the geography of flows, exchanges, and sociabilities at multiple scales. Using network analysis and information visualization methods, she seeks to make her approaches more accessible and reproducible. She is in charge of the development of the NETSCITY web application for mapping science data.
