How to Generate Personal Networks: Issues and Tools for a Sociological Perspective

Claire Bidart (1) , Johanne Charbonneau (2)

1 LEST - Laboratoire d'Economie et de Sociologie du Travail
2 INRS - Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique [Québec]

Each name generator produces its own type of personal network and has its own assumptions and boundaries. Following a quick review of these tools and their distinctive characteristics, we propose a new name generator to study the link between sociability and socialization. The sociological point of view leads to building large networks rooted in the social contexts of everyday life rather than networks focused on specific kinds of resources or based upon fictive scenarios. A two-step procedure allows to distinguish a context-based network that gives an idea of a person's global social environment from more specific networks. The discussion of this tool will reveal its principal advantages and limitations.

Mots clés: social networks; methods; sociology

Mots clés: réseaux sociaux; méthodes; sociologie

Domaines: Sociologie; Sciences de l'Homme et Société; Économie et finance quantitative [q-fin]

Claire Bidart, Johanne Charbonneau. How to Generate Personal Networks: Issues and Tools for a Sociological Perspective. 2012. ⟨halshs-00512180⟩