Social networks of meaning and communication
- Speaker: Jan Fuhse, Leipzig University
- Chair: Raffaele Vacca, University of Milan
- Discussant: Massimo Airoldi, University of Milan
- When: Monday March 31st, 2025 at 10:30-12:30
- Where: Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan – Via Conservatorio 7, Milan (SPS Seminar Room, Passione building)
- Teams link here
Abstract
What are social relationships and networks? Where do they come from? And why (and how) do they matter in the social world? This talk presents a relational sociological account of social networks as patterns of meaning. Social relationships and networks consist of dynamic bundles of expectations about the interaction between particular actors. These expectations come out of the process of communication, and they make for the regularity and predictability of communication, reducing its inherent uncertainty. Communication draws on a variety of cultural forms to define and negotiate the relationships between actors: relationship frames like “love” and “friendship” prescribe the kinds of interaction appropriate for types of tie; social categories like ethnicity and gender guide the interaction within and between categories of actors; and collective and corporate actors form on the basis of cultural models like “company”, “bureaucracy”, “street gang”, or “social movement”. The talk will draw from Fuhse’s recent book (Fuhse 2021) to give a general overview of the perspective and illustrate the core ideas applied to love and gender in social networks.
Fuhse, J. (2021). Social Networks of Meaning and Communication. Oxford University Press.
Bio
Jan A. Fuhse is senior lecturer for Computational Social Science and qualitative research methods at the Leipzig University Institute of Sociology, Germany. After his PhD in sociology from Universität Stuttgart in Germany, he completed a post-doc at Columbia University, where he worked with Harrison White and Charles Tilly on the theory of social networks. He was an assistant professor of political sociology at the University of Bielefeld (2009-2013) and a Heisenberg Fellow at Humboldt University of Berlin (2013-2018). His research focuses on communication and meaning in social networks, social networks in inequality and interethnic relations, constellations in political discourse, and the role of theory in the social sciences. His recent publications include: Social Networks of Meaning and Communication, (OUP 2021), “How Can Theories Represent Social Phenomena?” (Sociological Theory, 2022), “Analyzing Social Networks in Communication: A Mixed Methods Study of a Political Debate” (Quality & Quantity, 2023), “Stitching the Social World: The Processing of Multiple Social Structures in Communication” (Socius, 2023) and “Networks from Culture: Mechanisms of Tie-Formation Follow Institutionalized Rules in Social Fields” (with Neha Gondal, Social Networks, 2024).