Tag Archives: Germany Session

Call for Papers: Session on “Mechanisms of Change in Organizational Networks” XXXIII. Sunbelt Conference, May 21 – 26, 2013 in Hamburg, Germany

Call for Papers
Session on “Mechanisms of Change in Organizational Networks” XXXIII. Sunbelt Conference, May 21 – 26, 2013 in Hamburg, Germany

Session organizers:
Henning Hillmann, University of Mannheim, Germany (hillmann@uni-mannheim.de)
Valery Yakubovich, ESSEC Business School, France (yakubovich@essec.fr)

One of the most exciting areas in recent studies of organizational networks concerns the emergence of new organizational forms (e.g. the volume on Emergence of Organizations and Markets, by John Padgett and Woody Powell): where do markets and organizations come from? What social structural conditions and contexts are particularly favorable to facilitate innovation in organizations and elsewhere? Social science research tends to be attracted to newness. Yet, just as important are questions about the persistence of established organizational networks: why exactly are some organizational networks more likely to survive than others? What social mechanisms may account for their long-run survival and the spill-over effects they may have into other areas of organizational life? At the same time, we routinely observe organizational change. Does such change emerge endogenously, from within organizational networks? Or, is it more likely to be triggered by exogenous shocks? We believe that a promising approach to answering these questions seeks to identify the micro-foundations and causal mechanisms that give rise to various organizational macro-structures (e.g. Peter Hedstrom and Peter Bearman, eds., Handbook of Analytical Sociology).

We invite submissions that advance our understanding of the emergence, persistence and change of organizational networks. We particularly welcome contributions that try to solve interesting empirical puzzles and advance theory through mechanism-based explanations.

Submission will be closing on December 31 at 11:59:59 EST. Please limit your abstract to 250 words.
Proceed to abstract submission: http://www.abstractserver.com/sunbelt2013/absmgm/

When submitting your abstract, please select “Mechanisms of Change in Organizational Networks” as session title in the drop down box on the submission site. To be extra sure please put a note in the “additional notes” box on the abstract submission form that states Henning Hillmann as the session organizer.

For further information on the venue an1d conference registration see http://hamburg-sunbelt2013.org

Session on “Family Networks” at the XXXIII. Sunbelt 2013 – Hamburg

Call for Papers for a session on “Family Networks”
at the XXXIII. Sunbelt Conference, May 21 – 26, 2013 in Hamburg, Germany

Session organizers:

Andreas Klärner, University of Rostock, Germany, andreas.klaerner@uni-rostock.de
Sylvia Keim, University of Rostock, Germany, sylvia.keim@uni-rostock.de

Reaching back to Elizabeth Bott’s classic study on family relations and the division of labor within a couple, social network analysis has been an interesting perspective for family researchers. Since the discussion about “postmodern” or “patchwork”-families the traditional concept of family has been challenged and no longer can be conceived as given or unproblematic. Here the perspective of dynamically changing networks of family relations has become more and more prominent. Drawing on this discussion, we would like to ask how a network perspective can enhance our understanding of different processes in the making of families. Therefore, in this session we want to bring together researchers interested in family relations and social network analysis. We invite abstracts on theoretical as well as empirical work and appreciate different methodological approaches ranging from quantitative to qualitative and mixed-methods research methods.

Possible topics may include:

  • Family construction or the concept of family: How can a network perspective of dynamically changing family relations contribute to the discussion on changing and varying family patterns?
  • Union and family formation: How do personal relations and social support networks affect transitions to different stages in union and family formation? Do social networks have an effect on the transition to parenthood?
  • Family networks across the life course: How do family (and other) relations change across the life course? A special focus can be on specific life events as partnership formation, (re-)marriage, parenthood, separation/divorce, widowhood, children leaving home…
  • The effects of family ties in various research fields: What is the role of family ties and family support networks for e.g. individual health, education trajectories, (recovery from) drug addiction, criminal trajectories?
  • Intergenerational exchanges: What forms of social capital do intergenerational ties provide? Which financial transfers take place? How are they embedded in rules of reciprocity or solidarity? How are support for children and care of the elderly in “patchwork”-families organized?

Sunbelt Submission will be closing on December 31 at 11:59:59 EST. In order to organize the session, we will need the abstract a bit earlier, by December 20, 2012. Please limit your abstract to 250 words. The oral presentation is scheduled for 20 minutes. Please contact us, if you have any questions. For further information on the conference see http://hamburg-sunbelt2013.org

Contact: Andreas Klärner, Institut für Soziologie und Demographie, Universität Rostock, Ulmenstr. 69, D-18057 Rostock, Tel. +(0)381 498-4367, E-Mail

Sunbelt XXXIII: Call for Papers – Session SNA-QCA

Call for Papers for a session on “SNA meets QCA”

at the XXXIII. Sunbelt Conference, May 21 – 26, 2013 in Hamburg, Germany

Session organizers:
Anja Iseke, University of Paderborn, Germany
Jörg Raab, Tilburg University, the Netherlands

Like social network analysis (SNA), qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) has gained popularity as a research strategy and a family of methods since Charles Ragin (1989, 2000, 2008) introduced QCA to the social sciences. Following a set-theoretic approach, QCA views cases as configurations of outcomes and conditions based on Boolean algebra. In contrast to studying net effects of independent variables as in regression analysis, QCA methods seek to identify necessary and/or sufficient combinations of conditions that lead to an outcome. QCA is well atuned to multiple conjunctural causation, which implies that first, a combination of conditions (rather than a single condition) produces an outcome (conjunctural causation), second, there may be more than one combination of conditions which account for an outcome (equifinality), and third, a (combination) of condition leading to the presence of an outcome might be quite different from a combinations of conditions leading to the absence of the outcome (causal asymmetry).

So far, only few studies have combined SNA and QCA. For example, social networks have been studied as a condition (e.g., Stevenson & Greenberg, 2000) or as an outcome (Magetti, 2009). QCA has also been used to create typologies of networks (e.g., Yamasaki & Spreitzer, 2006) and Raab, Provan and Lemaire (forthcoming) discuss the combination for inter-organizational networks. Those studies provide ample evidence that QCA is a powerful approach for studying social networks. Configurational network theories may deepen our understanding of social networks antecedents, processes and outcomes, and QCA provide the methodological tools to test these theories. In addition, QCA is very suitable in combining qualitative and quantitative data to explain outcomes on the node, dyad or network level of analysis.

We invite abstracts for 20 minute oral presentations on social network studies that follow a configurational approach and/or apply set-theoretic methods, such as crisp-set QCA, multi-value QCA , fuzzy-set QCA from all social science disciplines.

Some of the questions to address include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Which combinations of conditions lead to specific outcomes? (e.g., what are necessary and sufficient conditions for occupying a central position in a network, what network characteristics are necessary and sufficient for high or low network effectiveness?)
  • Are certain network attributes (alone or in combination with other conditions) sufficient to explain a specific outcome (e.g., under which conditions are weak ties sufficient for receiving advice?)
  • Do actors occupying different network positions require different conditions to achieve a certain outcome? (e.g., do central or peripheral actors require different strategies or resources to perform well?
  • …

Submission will be closing on December 31 at 11:59:59 EST. Please limit your abstract to 250 words.

Proceed to abstract submission: http://www.abstractserver.com/sunbelt2013/absmgm/

When submitting your abstract, please select “SNA meets QCA” as session title in the drop down box on the submission site. To be extra sure please put a note in the “additional notes” box on the abstract submission form that states Anja Iseke as the session organizer.

For further information on the venue and conference registration see http://hamburg-sunbelt2013.org

References
Fischer, M. 2011. Social Network Analysis and Qualitative Comparative Analysis: Their Mutual Benefit for the Explanation of Policy Network Structures. Methodological Innovations Online, 6(2): 27–51.

Maggetti, M. 2009. The role of independent regulatory agencies in policy-making: a comparative analysis. Journal of European Public Policy, 16(3): 450–470.

Raab, J., Provan, K. and Lemaire, R. The Configurational Approach in Organizational Networks Research, in:”Configurational Theory and Methods in Organizational Research”, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, edited by P. Fiss, A. Marx and B. Cambre, forthcoming.

Ragin, C. C. 1989. The Comparative Method: Moving Beyond Qualitative and Quantitative Strategies (1st ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press.

Ragin, C. C. 2000. Fuzzy-Set Social Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Ragin, C. C. 2008. Redesigning social inquiry: Fuzzy sets and beyond. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Stevenson, W. B., & Greenberg, D. 2000. Agency and Social Networks: Strategies of Action in a Social Structure of Position, Opposition, and Opportunity. Administrative Science Quarterly, 45(4): 651–678.

Yamasaki, S., & Spreitzer, A. 2006. Beyond Methodological Tenets. In H. Grimm & B. Rihoux (Eds.), Innovative Comparative Methods for Policy Analysis: 95–120. New York: Springer.