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Returning to the original question in this interesting discussion.....
(IS a german shepherd or a baby a member of one's network?)

Everything CAN belong to a network, because anything can be considered to be an object, and there are always some notions of relations (however vague and indirect) involving those objects. The question should always be how USEFUL it is to think of things in some particular way-- and that depends upon one's particular purpose.

I find it terribly ironic (albeit not unusual) that several pieces of the present discussion that are based upon severe criticism of essentialism (e.g. Latour) spend so much time debating the essential nature of things.

I personally often find general questions about what IS an actor, an object, a relation, THE network, a SOCIAL network, or even how one analyzes networks in general, to be more distracting than helpful.  I especially appreciate seeing people sharing their most useful examples of both substantive examples and tools in this and other threads.  

Scott

Scott Feld
Professor of Sociology
Purdue University



-----Original Message-----
From: Social Networks Discussion Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of MARKKU LONKILA (SOSIO)
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2008 4:50 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [SOCNET] German shepherd and social networks

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Dear socnetters,

I want to stir the pot of social network definitions with a question 
about the notion of `social´ in social networks. Can a five-year-old 
German shepherd belong to one´s social network? How about a one-month-
old baby? Compared to the dog, the small baby is clearly much less 
communicative and interactive. Moreover, the dog may well be as 
central to one´s `social´ life (e.g. though connecting the owner with 
other dog owners and dogs) than the network member with human dna...

Markku Lonkila



-- 
Markku Lonkila
Docent, PhD, Researcher
The Finnish Centre for East European Studies  
/ Department of Sociology, University of Helsinki
homepage: http://www.valt.helsinki.fi/staff/lonkila
e-mail: [log in to unmask]

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