[Air-L] AAG 2012 CFP: Tools and Tales of Social and Spatial Network Analysis

[Joe Eckert]

*Apologies for cross posting....*
*

Call for Papers: Tools and Tales of Social and Spatial Network Analysis

Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting
9-13 April 2013
Los Angeles, CA

Organizers:
Joe Eckert, Department of Geography, University of Washington
Monica Stephens, Department of Geography, Humboldt State University

Networks are a long-standing staple of spatial analysts.  Social network
analysis (SNA), on the other hand, is underexplored in geography while
gaining notoriety in other disciplines of social science (e.g., sociology,
information studies, epidemiology, organizational studies).  One way in
which these networks form is through digital interactions between users of
social media platforms.  Drawing from work from internet geographers (Zook,
Graham, etc...), we know that these interactions are in turn informed and
created within contexts of physical space.  We seek scholars that are using
spatially grounded qualitative and quantitative network analysis to ask,
"how do we bring social network analysis methods and theory into
conversation with geographic theory and spatial analysis?"
Work undertaken by analysts using geographic information systems (GIS) and
social network analysis (SNA) are parallel in many ways, including shared
analytical techniques and vocabulary.  However, while both seek
explanations for the relationships among entities; geographers seek spatial
context, whereas social network analysts seek a social context.  We feel
that these two modes of analysis richly complement one another, and
geographers might be well served by examining the ways in which networks of
place interact with digitally enabled social networks.

We seek papers that meet this broad theme, but offer the following
questions to consider:

- In what ways are digitally enabled networks created via the spaces in
which platform users physically inhabit?
- How are digital enabled networks both implicitly and explicitly spatial?
 Do the digital traces of our lives left as user-generated content speak to
the ways in which we experience and create space?
-Which SNA tools are useful for spatial analysis, which spatial tools are
useful for SNA?
- How can theoretical work on network theory be brought to bear on
empirical practices of social network analysis?
- How might social network analysis further nuance different
conceptualizations of network theory?
- How can geographers methodologically examine bipartite (2-mode) spaces?
 How can we understand this in GIS?
- How can GIS or geographic analysis begin to examine triadic structures in
social data?
- Is GIS or other geospatial analysis complicit in the construction of
social network space?  Could it be?  Should it be?

We welcome studies that explore any of these issues, or any that more
broadly address themes of social network analysis, network theory, and the
urban networks that comprise the digital.

Please send your 250 word abstract to the organizers, Monica (
Monica.Stephens at humboldt.edu) and Joe (jeckert1 at uw.edu) by September 28,
2012.  We will inform authors with successful submissions on October 5,
2012.  This session will be part of #GEO/CODE 2013: Geoweb, Big Data and
Society organized by the New Mappings Collaboratory (
http://newmaps.as.uky.edu/geocode-2013-geoweb-big-data-and-society-call-calls-papers
).*