Tag: transnational networks

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SoNAR 2019 international workshop

The international workshop Social Network Analysis in Romania – SoNAR 2019 is organized by the Research Group on Graphs and Social Networks (GraphNets – an interdisciplinary research group of the University of Bucharest).

SoNAR 2019 is the third scientific event focused on social network analysis and organized by GraphNets, in Romania. In 2017, GraphNets, in collaboration with the Research Institute of the University of Bucharest and the Max Plank Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG), organized the international workshop on Graphs, networks and digital humanities. In 2018, GraphNets organized the international workshop Analyzing multiple networks from diverse perspectives – the workshops took place in Timișoara and Bucharest.

SoNAR 2019 revolves around the study of large networks (data collection, processing and analysis) and hosts lectures, presentations and a round table on various topics such as, for instance, co-authorship networks, transnational networks, or intra-organizational networks. Additionally, in the context of social network analysis, two important issues are also addressed: the means for data mining and processing as well as the mixture between machine learning and social statistics.

The keynote address at the SoNAR 2019 is given by Jürgen Lerner (University of Konstanz, Germany). Jürgen Lerner is professor of algorithms with specific research interests in the area of social network analysis, open peer-production, networks with positive and negative ties, computational social science and statistical network modelling.  

During SoNAR 2019, preliminary results of the iCoNiC research project will be reported. These results will be afterwards explored and discussed under the format of a round table. This input is expected to support policy-makers and university top management, in Romania or EU, in tailoring their public policies’ formulations in the field of science.

The booklet is available here.

SoNAR 2019 is endorsed by the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work (The University of Bucharest), the Research Institute of the University of Bucharest (the Social Science Division). The organization of SoNAR 2019 is also supported by the Research Center in Applied Ethics.

SoNAR 2019 is supported by the Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI) through the research grant Longitudinal analysis of coauthorship networks and citations in academia (iCoNiC) – code: PN-III-P1-1.1-TE-2016-0362 (details on https://iconic.unibuc.ro/)

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10th International summer course “Theory, Methods and Applications of Personal Networks” in Barcelona

The ICONIC crew attended, from 1st to 5th of July, the 10th edition of the Summer Course on Personal Networks, held by Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain. The event was a great occasion for students, academics and even non-academic people to find out about how and why social networks, especially personal networks, influence our everyday life in society. From the spreading of diseases, smoking behaviour, or social support to migration issues and coauthorship networks, the event covered all types of topics and analysis employing different (mixed) methodologies.

During summer course, the team members were involved in different workshops, irrespective of their qualitative or quantitative specific. Now we are more than apprentices in data collection and visualization with Vennmaker (a course taught by Alejandro García Macías with the support of Ignacio Fradejas-García and Paula Escribano, Universidad Autonoma De Aguascalientes, Mexic & Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain) and ready to employ Network Canvas demo (Bernie Hogan, Joshua R. Melville, University of Oxford, United Kingdom) during interviews. Another demo presented was Egoweb, a project developed by UAA & UAB. One central focus of the school was on how to do personal network analysis with R language and environment, from the basics to multilevel modelling (with Tom Smith and Raffaele Vacca, University of Florida, USA). Gabriel Hâncean, ICONIC principal investigator, introduced students to hive-plots with HiveR, that is, a new rational and easy way for visualizing network data. The last hands-on workshops were held by Jürgen Lerner (University of Konstanz, Germany), on comparing personal networks with clustered graphs (and by using EgoNet – visone), and on modelling personal networks with ERGMs.

Besides the workshops, we participated to a series of lectures about the fundamentals of personal networks analysis, research questions, name generators, and qualitative dimensions of personal networks. The sessions were held by Miranda J. Lubbers and José Luis Molina (UAB), professors at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology and organizers of the Summer School.

The whole team contributed to the introductory workshop to hive-plots with HiveR, assisting the other participants with different issues encountered during R exercises. Also, the team members attended the ORBITS research project meeting 2019 (more details here). The meeting consisted in a discussion about the status of the fieldwork in Romania, Bistrița-Năsăud County, and on how to grow the Orbits project for the next years.

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José Luis Molina about migratory corridors between Romania and Spain (interview)

José Luis Molina, professor at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, gave a talk for Scena9, an online platform that analyzes and promotes the cultural life in Romania. José Molina was asked about the social relationships between Romania and Spain. The link for the interview, in Romanian, can be accessed here.

José Luis talked about ORBITS, his ongoing project, one developed together with a team from University of Bucharest, coordinated by Marian-Gabriel Hâncean. The aim of the project is to study how European citizens seek better opportunities through intra-European mobility, employing a transnational perspective. The project analyzes two important Romanian enclaves established in Spain, having connections with migrant areas of origin. In the first part of the project, the Castellón – Dâmboviţa migratory corridor (the county where most of the Romanians come from the city of Valencia) was documented. The second corridor will analyze the relation between Roquetas de Mar and Bistrița Năsăud.

At this moment (i.e. October 2018), both teams have just finished the first phase of the project- studying the migration corridor Castellon-Dâmboviţa by interviewing 150 people from Castellon and 150 people from Târgoviște, using a link-tracing methodology. At this phase the project aim is to rebuild the huge network of interactions between these two cities, from Facebook communication to money transfer processes. The second phase of the project will start in the begging of 2019.

Nowadays, Castellon is considered to be the new home for many Romanians leaving from Târgoviște. There is a very wide cultural transformation, possible due to the European Union which allows such an extensive mobility. The question which arises is linked to the reason why Romanians chose Spain as their main destination, together with Italy. Professor Molina proposes an answer closely related to legislation. In the 1990s, the legal framework in Spain and Italy allowed a massive process of migration regulations. Thus, the legislation turned them into countries of destination for migrants. Another important reason was that, during that period, both in Spain and Italy, an explosion in the construction sector took place, and that meant a big volume of unskilled workers who could work in both countries.

José Luis pointed out that ORBITS project helped the research team to realize that in Spain (Castellon) the category of people around whom several connections are build is that of the “firstcomers”, the entrepreneurs. They are essential because they have set the conditions for the migration chain to work. These few people who came in the beginning offered support to any Romanian who arrived in the area.

Those enclaves are interesting to study because they are part of an emerging phenomenon: an enormous number of people migrate to a specific place without someone planning that in advance.

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Analyzing multiple networks from diverse perspectives – international workshop

The first ICONIC international workshop Analyzing multiple networks from diverse perspectives will take place from September 15 to 26, 2018, actually representing a series of lectures, seminars, roundtables and a hands-on workshop meant to cover many different uses and practices of social network analysis. This omnibus workshop is the first of such scale in Romania, taking place in two cities – Timisoara and Bucharest –, for six days, and approaching numerous topics, like personal networks, transnational (migrant) networks, coauthorship networks in science and semantic networks. It has also a multidisciplinary purpose, bringing together social sciences, computer and data science, linguistics and digital humanities, and ethics.

The special guest and keynote speaker is Professor José Luis Molina (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology) who will deliver two lectures. The first one, on September 15, 09.30 AM, opens the second day of the 5th International Conference of the Romanian Sociologists Society, Living in a liquid society, in Timisoara, held at the West University of Timisoara. A second one is due on September 17, 09.30 AM, in Bucharest, at the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work, University of Bucharest. Professor Molina’s lectures will start from a general question: Whole, personal or egocentric networks? What do we know about personal networks and why it matters. Alongside professor Molina, two invited guests will join the workshop: Adina Nergheș (Digital Humanities Group at the KNAW Humanities Cluster) and Angelina Irena Kussy (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology).

During the whole period no more than five sessions, roundtables and a practical workshop will bring together around 20 researchers. In Timisoara, the ICONIC team and its guests are part of a panel devoted to Living in a liquid society, living in transnational social fields. In Bucharest, we will analyze networks from multiple perspectives for two consecutive days (September 18 and 19, 2018). The last two days of this scientific meeting, September 25 and 26, are dedicated to semantic networks, from a theoretical and practical standpoint. The hands-on workshop speaker and mentor is Adina Nergheș.

The full programme is available here.

For detailed information about lectures and panels, participants and abstracts please check the booklet.

If it’s September, it’s the social networks season!