Reflections on a Critical Sociology of Networks

Charalambos Tsekeris

doi:10.31269/triplec.v14i2.776

Charalambos Tsekeris Research Centre for Greek Society, Academy of Athens

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31269/triplec.v14i2.776

Keywords: Sociology of Networks, Relational Social Science, Human Complex Systems, Research Methods, Internet, Big Data, Power, Social Dynamics

Abstract

Nowadays, sociological concerns for networks, relations, associations, processes, mobilities and flows are intensive and emblematic. This reflection takes “networks” and their multiple products as starting points for a new sociological imagination. It hence outlines a set of current theoretical and methodological issues for approaching the wide and diverse field of the sociology of networks in a critical manner, beginning from the analytical distinction between the critical and the normative-functionalist sociology of networks. The paper concludes with reference to contemporary digital society and the critical use of network data, that is, ever-larger quantities of information generated by human communicative interactions in social networking platforms and other web activities.

Author Biography

Charalambos Tsekeris, Research Centre for Greek Society, Academy of Athens

Dr. Charalambos Tsekeris (Brunel, Panteion) is currently Research Associate at the Research Centre for Greek Society of the Academy of Athens and at the Anti-Corruption Centre for Education and Research of Stellenbosch University. He has the title of Professor Extraordinary (School of Public Leadership, Stellenbosch University), of Senior Researcher at the Laboratory of Virtual Reality, Internet Research & E-Learning (Panteion University) and of Research Professor at Aegean College, Athens, Greece. He is also directing the Aegean Research Centre (Aegean College) and lecturing at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Department of Communication and Media Studies), the Air Force Command and Staff College (AFCSC), and the Hellenic Naval Staff and Command College, Athens, Greece. His current research interests involve relational approaches in the social science, chaos and complexity science, computational research methods and techniques, human complex systems and psychosocial networks. He is the co-editor of The Social Dynamics of Web 2.0 (Routledge 2014) and editor of Revisiting the Self: Social Science Perspectives (Routledge 2015). Corresponding email: tsekeris@gmail.com