In the cutthroat world of VC investment, founders compete in a ruthless game of attention-seeking for a VC partner’s time. Yet time is also freely spent on the seemingly frivolous: cocktail receptions, coffee chats, holiday celebrations and even gym sessions, where VC partners and startup founders spend precious time and effort. In a field where half an hour of attention could be worth millions in investment, the question that begs to be asked in the face of this apparent contradiction between temporal scarcity and abundance is, why? Why are social relationships valued to the extent that they are, in the world of venture investing, that its participants deem it a worthwhile venture to commit to?

We investigate ethnographically venture capital’s relationships with AI and blockchain startup founders, based on interviews and field observations in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Singapore, which are major hubs of venture capital. We argue that VC investment relationships occupy a distinct space in the array of economic social relationships. They harbour significant distinctions in context, patterns and expectations when compared with other types of social relationships in the business and personal worlds. They are simultaneously vessels of mutual evaluation and signifiers of social proximity. This double bind of business utility and real-life intimacy—what this paper would dub as “utilitarian intimacy”—sets VC investment relationships apart from other relational norms studied by economic sociology.

The study of social networks has traditionally emphasized structural factors in determining network resilience, yet recent research has increasingly recognized the role of individual agency in shaping network responses to disruption. This paper investigates how actors actively reconfigure their ego-networks in response to exogenous shocks, focusing on the strategies they employ to sustain or restore network functionality. We explore these dynamics through a longitudinal case study of the political, economic, and criminal networks embedded in the “Mafia Capitale” scandal in Rome, Italy (2012–2015). The case provides an exceptional setting to examine agentic responses to network disruption, as it involves a business network that blurred the boundaries between legal and illegal practices and faced a major external shock: the election of a new mayor committed to disrupting clientelist ties in public procurement.

Our analysis identifies four distinct strategies actors deployed to restore network effectiveness: turtling, group leverage, direct contact leverage, and broker leverage. These mechanisms reveal how individuals navigate political and institutional shifts, leveraging their existing and newly formed connections to maintain influence and operational continuity. By combining social network analysis with qualitative historical methods, this study moves beyond structural explanations of resilience, offering a micro-foundational perspective on how actors dynamically manage network churn. Our findings contribute to the emerging literature on network agency and resilience by demonstrating how actors proactively adapt to institutional change and external shocks, with implications for research on organizational networks, governance, and institutional transitions.

The study of political conflict often assumes that individuals’ social ties determine their political actions. While this structuralist approach has been successful in many contexts, it struggles to account for the actions of political elites, whose power depends on maintaining strategic flexibility. Political divisions among elites are largely endogenous to the political process and cannot be reduced to social position. Building on recent developments in social network theory, this paper advances an “action-in-networks” approach that, rather than using networks to predict sides, focuses on the dynamics of side-taking—how elites make, maintain, and sever ties to navigate the political field. We illustrate this perspective through a case study of John Williams, a key political figure in early New York who switched from the Republican to the Federalist Party in 1795. Using a dataset of over 300 personal letters, we show that Williams’ switch was not a predictable outcome of his network position but a strategic move that triggered a reconfiguration of his political and social relationships. Our analysis reveals three key insights: (1) Political elites operate in multiple, intersecting networks. (2) Political action involves not only the making but also the strategic breaking of ties to create new opportunities. (3) Political action is shaped by broader cultural logics embedded in social relations. By the late 1790s, partisanship had displaced older forms of patron-clientelism. Williams, who perhaps did not fully understand this change, found himself trapped in an uneasy alliance—one that ultimately undermined his political prospects.

Regulatory oversight of the U.S. animal agriculture sector is distributed across multiple federal agencies, including United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), and Center for Disease Control (CDC), each with distinct yet interrelated responsibilities. Collaboration and coordination across these agencies are critical to upholding the food system and ensuring food safety, worker protections, and public health. Yet, differing organizational missions, resource constraints, and institutional barriers can present challenges to coordination and collaboration.

In this research, I use qualitative network research. I draw on interviews conducted with federal agency employees and analysis of ego-network data, collected using Network Canvas, to map inter- and intra- agency collaborative networks. I describe some of the methodological challenges to conducting research with federal agency representatives – challenges that have been intensified in the current U.S. political-economic context.

I identify the barriers and benefits of regulatory collaboration and coordination, as described by research participants. I analyze challenges to collaborative networks through interview and social network data, including information silos, communication barriers, and regulatory fragmentation. I detail positive outcomes of interagency coordination in the realm of the U.S. animal agriculture sector, including crisis responses, enhanced information-sharing mechanisms, and joint enforcement efforts that strengthen regulatory oversight and response to emergent threats, including disease outbreaks.

In identifying key barriers and facilitators of collaboration—such as trust, shared goals, and institutional support—this research provides a roadmap for strengthening interagency networks and food system resiliency.

Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) networks operate on a business model that combines the direct sale of products and services with the continuous recruitment of new sellers, who are integrated into a hierarchical structure based on sponsorship. Far from being static entities, these networks evolve according to individual trajectories and group dynamics, shaped by mechanisms of co-optation, social control, and collective learning. This presentation is based on a qualitative study conducted within a network of female sellers affiliated with a company specializing in cosmetics and dietary supplements, referred to as Vital Nature. Using a multi-method approach that combines interviews, digital and in-person ethnography, and network modelling, this study examines the processes of tie formation, stabilization, and transformation within the network. Special attention is given to the mechanisms through which highly influential members at upper hierarchical levels shape and regulate activity within the network, ensuring its continuity while reproducing interdependent relationships and labor dynamics characteristic of MLM structures. Digital platforms – particularly social media – play a crucial role in these processes: it facilitates co-optation and the deployment of remote supervision strategies, notably by enabling social control through the monitoring of members' online content. Finally, by analysing the upward mobility trajectories and profiles of the most committed sellers, this study questions the conditions of success in an industry where the majority ultimately fails.

When two individuals form a couple, they often share their daily lives and experiences; they also share, at least in part, their relational entourages. The literature has shown that the formation of a couple redefines the roles of each individual, leading to significant changes in relationships and networks. We can thus observe a dynamic of extension of one or both spouses’ network, as well as a dynamic of withdrawal into the couple’s network. Either way, the personal network of each spouse is modified.

Couple's sociability can be observed either through a network of couples interviewed together or separately, or through a personal network of just one of the spouses. If we apply a methodology that takes into account both individuals forming the couple, we obtain a complete picture of the network. In our work, a couple's network has been reconstructed a posteriori from the aggregation of the two personal networks collected. The results presented here are based on the analysis of ten duocentric networks combining the personal networks of the two cohabiting spouses interviewed separately. The study of these relational configurations questions the composition of a couple's network and its structure. They also reveal each spouse's position in the couple's network. Moreover, by observing the level of connection or disconnection of their respective alters, the analysis of these configurations enables us to grasp the extent to which the personal network of each spouse is dependent on the couple’s network.

The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly disrupted primary healthcare (PHC) systems worldwide, exacerbating pre-existing health vulnerabilities. In Indonesia, where child malnutrition remains a persistent challenge, these disruptions have reshaped the structural and functional dynamics of healthcare delivery. This study employs a qualitative social network analysis (SNA) approach to explore how healthcare providers navigated disruptions, adapted service provision, and maintained critical networks in malnutrition care during the pandemic crisis. Using semi-structured interviews with healthcare staff from six PHC centers, so called 'puskesmas', in the Sleman Regency of the Yogyakarta Special Region, we analyzed pandemic-induced shifts in communication, coordination, and resource-sharing networks. Our analysis identifies three core themes: network disruptions (e.g., fragmentation of provider-patient communication, supply chain breakdowns, and weakened inter-facility collaboration), network impacts (e.g., reduced patient access, increased provider workload, and declining trust in healthcare institutions), and network adaptations (e.g., digital solutions for service continuity, community-based monitoring strategies, and strengthened inter-organizational linkages). Findings highlight the critical role of social networks in healthcare resilience during crises. While top-down disruptions initially fragmented service delivery, bottom-up adaptations - leveraging informal provider networks and digital innovations - helped mitigate systemic breakdowns. The study underscores the need for network-informed policy interventions to enhance health system preparedness and equity in service access. By integrating SNA into global health crisis response frameworks, we provide a novel lens for understanding the relational mechanisms that shape health system resilience in resource-constrained settings.

This study examines the network structure and the meanings embedded in the connections fostered by digitalization within Indonesia's student movement, specifically the #DarkIndonesia movement in February 2025. Historically, student movements in Indonesia have played a pivotal role in shaping political change, as seen in the regime transitions of 1966 and 1998. In August 2024, students, alongside the general public, mobilized under the banner of #IndonesiaEmergencyAlert to successfully prevent attempts by political elites to manipulate the legal system. In February 2025, Generation Z students launched the #DarkIndonesia movement to voice their concerns about the governance of the new administration. Digital platforms emerged as crucial mediums for organizing and amplifying the movement. This study builds upon conversation analysis conducted by Drone Emprit, a research unit, to investigate how participants in the movement use language to structure and assign meaning to their digital interactions. Through in-depth interviews with student participants, participant observation, and content analysis, this research explores the dynamics of the movement's digital networks, the social significance of these interactions, and the impact of digital platforms on both the structure of these networks and the meanings attributed to the connections within them.

Understanding how networks evolve and change is a key question that many network research projects address through a variety of research topics. Understanding the dynamics of networks is not just a matter of using a particular type of methodical approach, but requires a theoretical and methodological framework to maintain the analytical focus. Qualitative Network Research offers the following premises for approaching questions of network dynamics from a qualitative research perspective: Relationships are not fixed entities, but form and change as they are embedded in a structure of relationships (in interaction with other relationships and contexts) as networks form. As a result, Qualitative Network Research aims at understanding the meanings of relationships and their structural embeddedness, as well as the consequences for social interaction. In short, relationships and networks can be understood as meaning-making interactive interpretations that are perspectival (social and subjective), meaningfully constructed, processual and dynamically negotiated.

In this presentation, we will discuss the premises of Qualitative Network Research and, using examples from our own research projects, show how these premises inform methodological choices focussing on understanding network dynamics.

Existing research highlights the multidimensional role of personal networks in shaping various aspects of an individual’s life, including the provision of social support and, more recently, exposure to negative influences. However, limited attention has been given to the role of social networks in facilitating wisdom acquisition, particularly in the context of international migration. This study addresses this gap by examining how personal networks contribute to the development of wisdom among Ghanaian immigrants in London, Ontario, Canada. Using a qualitative social network analysis approach and in-depth interviews with 21 participants, we investigate the social mechanisms through which wisdom is acquired in the migration experience. Participants identified up to five individuals who played a significant role in shaping their perspectives and decision-making processes. Our findings reveal that wisdom-related support primarily comes from friends, acquaintances, and colleagues established in Canada, with some participants also identifying transnational ties who have influenced their ways of thinking. Specifically, network members were instrumental in fostering open-mindedness, shaping perceptions of others, and influencing work ethic and time management, particularly in the Canadian socio-cultural context. These findings have important implications for immigrant integration, suggesting that social networks serve as important conduits of cultural and professional learning, ultimately facilitating integration and socio-economic mobility. Understanding these dynamics can inform policies and programs aimed at enhancing immigrant settlement and social cohesion by leveraging network-based wisdom transmission.

Lone parenthood is a critical life course transition that extends beyond the individual, redefining the personal network within which parents and children navigate over time. While the personal network paradigm has proved to be crucial to understanding the positive impact of personal networks on well-being during diverse family transitions (Bernardi, 2011), its application to study vulnerable processes in lone parent trajectories remains scarce and has significant limitations (Keim, 2018). This study, drawing on the 11-year Swiss data panel “The Multiple Paths of Lone Parenthood (2012-2022)” and using a mixed-methods approach combining longitudinal qualitative and quantitative ego-network data, aims to fill this gap. The study seeks to answer: How do lone parents’ personal networks contribute to overcoming vulnerability over time? Specifically, it will examine: 1) the role that the structure and composition of lone parents' personal networks play in the allocation and use of resources across life domains; 2) the life domains and types of resources most strategic provided by these networks; and 3) the subjective meaning lone parents attribute to their personal networks. We will present preliminary findings from this work-in-progress paper at the session, offering initial insights into how personal networks shape lone parent trajectories across life domains and over time.