Living in Networks The Dynamics of Social Relations Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences Series

How do personal networks emerge from social contexts? How do these evolve during the course of a lifetime? How are relationships established, maintained, connected, disrupted? How does the structure of a network evolve as people face transitions and events? Based on a classic text originally published in France and that has become the standard on the empirical study of social networks there, for the first time, a network analysis perspective is extended from contexts and social circles to relationships and life events through empirical studies. Following in the tradition of personal network studies, this contribution to the field of structural analysis in Sociology offers both a synthesis of knowledge and original results from two immense surveys carried out in France. This volume proposes an original theory grounded in relational dynamics, offering novel perspectives on individual social relations over the course of a lifetime through the context of personal networks, access to social resources, and inequalities.

Part I. Foundations of a Sociology of Relational Dynamics: 1. Understanding Relationships; 2: Analyzing Networks; Part II. Networks and their Dynamics: 3. Relationships Do not Come out of Nowhere; 4. The Dynamics of Relationships; 5. Relationships that End, Relationships that Endure; 6. Networks and their Dynamics; 7: As the Years Go By; Part III. Networks and Social Worlds; 8. Networks Have a Spatial Dimension; 9. Soft Segregation; 10. Relationships and Networks as Resources; 11. Unequal Networks; Conclusion.

Claire Bidart is Research Director in the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Aix Marseille Univ.
Alain Degenne was Research Director in the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). He is the co-author with Michel Forsé of Introducing Social Networks (1999).
Michel Grossetti is Research Director in the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS).