UAB: 6th edition of the Summer Course – Theory, Methods and Applications of Social Networks. The measurement of personal networks. 17 abril 17UTC 2012

Ja s’ha publicat el programa d’una nova edició dels cursos d’estiu de la UAB. Font: Egolab.

Summer Course

6th edition of the Summer Course
Theory, Methods and Applications of Social Networks.
The measurement of personal networks (2 ECTS*)
Academic Code: 2287/6

9- 13 July 2012
Computer Lab “P-33“
(Facultat de Lletres-Psicologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Registration deadline: 29th June 2012.

Presentation

The aim of this 6th edition of the summer course is to enable graduate students in the social sciences to create, compare and critique personal network research designs. On the first day, we will discuss the basic definitions and central concepts in personal network research and we will briefly relate personal networks with various theoretical streams in the social sciences. This will give students an understanding of the requirements that researchers may pose to their instruments. We will then introduce the basic steps of measurement of personal networks in survey research. The second day is focused on delineating the networks. Students will be introduced to the variety of name generators and alternative approaches used in social sciences, which will be compared with respect to contents, the characteristics of the measured networks and ties, the reliability and validity of the measures, and respondent burden. On the third day, we will discuss the measurement of basic name interpreters, such as tie strength, roles and contexts and the measurement of network structure. An international seminar on personal networks will end the course.

Throughout the course, the students will have hands-on sessions with computer programs developed for the computer-assisted collection of extended personal networks, with both quantitative and qualitative aspects (Egonet and Vennmaker) and they will participate in class discussions.

This summer course is intended for PhD students and researchers interested in designing their own personal network studies. We expect them to have a basic understanding of general social science methodology (e.g., questionnaire construction, concepts of validity and reliability). We also ask them to prepare a summary of their research aims (max. 1 page), to help us understand their interests and focus their attention to specific readings. Students are strongly encouraged to do the suggested readings before taking the course. The sessions will be conducted in English. At the end of each session participants are asked to complete a task and send it to professors. The participants who complete the scheduled tasks will get an official recognition of credits (*)..

---

Background.

Participants should check the contents of the following material:

McCarthy, C. & Molina, JL. Personal Network Analysis. Research and Applications [pdf].

---

Program (provisional)

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
10:00- 14:00	Introduction to the course and the Observatory of Personal Networks (OPeN). Introduction to the measurement of personal networks.  (Miranda J. Lubbers and José Luis Molina)	Comparison of name generators: Contents, reliability and validity, characteristics of measured networks (Miranda J. Lubbers)	Name Interpreters. Measuring relationships among alters (Miranda J. Lubbers and Chris McCarty).	International Seminar	International Seminar
14:00-16:00	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch	Lunch
16:00-18:30	Personal network analysis with EgoNet José Luis Molina)  Facebook personal networks ( Beatriz Patraca)	Vennmakerworkshop (Markus Gamper).	Lecture by Chris McCarty Group dinner	International Seminar Lecture by Markku Lonkila	-

During the morning will be a break of 30 minutes.

Course materials are available HERE (soon).

---

Professors (this list can change): José Luis Molina, Miranda J. Lubbers  (UAB) with invited participations of Chris McCarty (University of Florida, USA), Markus Gamber (University of Cologne) and others.

Fees: 350€ in the Postgraduate School by web. Once accepted in the Summer course fill this form and send it to  ep.matricula@uab.cat. Support is available at + 34 93 581 3010 [+]

People who are interested/Applicants are required to send their vitae and a brief description of their research question or interests to gr.egoredes@uab.es

Accommodation can be find in the same University, either as apartment  (contact in this case with ines.zamora ad uab.cat for a special rate filling this form) or in the Hotel Campus.

The best way for getting the UAB from Barcelona is by train with the “Ferrocarils de la Generalitat de Catalunya, FGC“, lines S2 and S55.  There is a stop station for the University “Universitat Autònoma”. From Catalunya Square (at the Centre of Barcelona) the trip takes about 30 minutes. From the station to “Facultat de Lletres” or to the “Vil•la” (the accomodation facilities) the walk takes about 10 minutes.

There is another stop station named “Cerdanyola-Universitat” from Renfe but it is a bit far from the Campus, so we recommend strongly to take the FGC line instead.

How to get to the Airport from Catalonia Square (“Plaça Catalunya”) . Take the “Aerobus” shutlle, in front of El Corte Ingles (a big mall). You will note that there are two separate queues – one for the Aerobus (A1) to Terminal 1 (T1) and one for the Aerobus (A2) to Terminal 2 (T2). The trip takes about 40′.

---

(*) This document is issued after request by the participants at the end of the course by the Postgraduate School, it has an extra cost of about 25,90€ and it takes about 10 days to be issued. All participants will receive a official certificate of attendance by the organizers.

---

Edition 11 [htm]

Edition 10  [htm]

Edition 09  [htm]

Edition 08  [htm]

Edition 07 [htm]