Telling network stories: researching migrants' changing social relations in places over time. (7th July 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ryan, Louise
• Editors: Dahinden, Janine; Ryan, Louise
• Is Part Of: Global networks. Volume 21:Number 3(2021)
• Page Start: 567
• Page End: 584
• Publication Date: 2020-07-07
• Subjects: ETHNIC LENS -- MIGRATION -- QUALITATIVE SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS -- SOCIOGRAMS -- STORIES -- TRANSNATIONALITY; Internationalism -- Periodicals; Globalization -- Periodicals; 303.482
• DOI: 10.1111/glob.12295
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1470-2266

Abstract

Abstract: This article is situated at the nexus of migration research and qualitative social network analysis (SNA). While migration scholars often engage with networks simply as metaphors, I go further by examining how a thorough engagement with qualitative SNA can contribute to migration research in at least three key ways. First, exploring changing relational ties over time and across different places, including transnationally, I demonstrate that qualitative SNA offers new insights into how migrants make sense of these dynamic relationships. Second, following Dahinden (2016), I examine how using networks as a data collection method can help to unsettle the a priori ethnic lens in researching migration. Moreover, building on the pioneering work of network scholars such as Mische and White, I aim to make a methodological contribution by analysing how social networks are co‐constructed as stories and pictures in research encounters.