From Object to Flow Network sensibility, symbolic interactionism, and social media

Network analysis, especially as it has been understood in relation to the specific methodological approaches of Social Network Analysis (SNA), is not a tool that is naturally employed by interpretive sociologists, social constructionists or symbolic interactionists. To state it simply, SNA focuses on the presence of connections between people and the structural dimensions of relations whereas Symbolic Interactionism (SI) focuses on the content or meaning of these relationships as they are enacted and constantly negotiated in everyday communicative interactions. The approaches are seemingly incompatible. In spite of our issues with the positivist premises and ontological assumptions of standard SNA, we have both been drawn to some of the possibilities offered by a network sensibility. On the surface, network maps and visualizations are compelling. They speak to — and make concrete — patterns that we have already started to piece together in our minds. Scratching the surface of their visual impact, we have found that visualizations emerging from a network thinking prompt a range of sensibilities not available through a simple analysis of text. When the tools are separated from the disciplinary parameters for which they were developed, they offer a beguiling method for extending certain approaches, such as grounded theory, symbolic interactionism, or ethnography, and specifying other approaches, such as discourse analysis, actor network theory or practice theory. In this essay, we make a case for embracing and critically developing network sensibilities as a way to grapple with the complexity of contemporary social media interactions. Our discussion, mostly focused at the level of method, is intended to contribute to ongoing conversations (e. stressing the need to build conceptual and methodological frameworks that resonate more closely with the complexity of networked, technologically-mediated social contexts. Along with the editors of this special issue, we contend that symbolic interactionist concepts remain stymied by ill-fitting but taken-for-granted methods. Most of our methods were designed for and still assume relatively stable, local contexts wherein units of analysis such as individual, speech act, and interaction could be identified and isolated. Textbooks still encourage new scholars to draw boundaries around the object of inquiry at very early stages, 2 based on the assumption that the individual and the social are unequivocally linked together as part to whole. To begin, we clarify the distinction between network analysis and network sensibility. We then discuss three key strengths of using network sensibilities to study the nuances of social media: (1) …