Imaginary worlds: Using visual network scales to capture perceptions of social networks

Ajay Mehra; Stephen P. Borgatti; Scott Soltis; Theresa Floyd; Daniel S. Halgin; Brandon Ofem; Virginie Lopez-Kidwell

doi:10.1108/S0733-558X(2014)0000040016

Imaginary worlds: Using visual network scales to capture perceptions of social networks

Ajay Mehra, Stephen P. Borgatti, Scott Soltis, Theresa Floyd, Daniel S. Halgin, Brandon Ofem, Virginie Lopez-Kidwell

Management

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review

32 Scopus citations

Abstract

Social networks are not just patterns of interaction and sentiment in the real world; they are also cognitive (re)constructions of social relations, some real, some imagined. Focusing on networks as mental entities, our essay describes a new method that relies on stylized network images to gather quantitative data on how people "see" specific aspects of their social worlds. We discuss the logic of our approach, present several examples of "visual network scales," discuss some preliminary findings, and identify some of the problems and prospects in this nascent line of work on the phenomenology of social networks. Keywords: Cognition; cognitive social networks.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Contemporary Perspectives on Organizational Social Networks
Pages	315-336
Number of pages	22
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X(2014)0000040016
State	Published - 2014

Publication series

Name	Research in the Sociology of Organizations
Volume	40
ISSN (Print)	0733-558X

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Sociology and Political Science
Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

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10.1108/S0733-558X(2014)0000040016

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Mehra, A., Borgatti, S. P., Soltis, S., Floyd, T., Halgin, D. S., Ofem, B., & Lopez-Kidwell, V. (2014). Imaginary worlds: Using visual network scales to capture perceptions of social networks. In Contemporary Perspectives on Organizational Social Networks (pp. 315-336). (Research in the Sociology of Organizations; Vol. 40). https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X(2014)0000040016

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AU - Ofem, Brandon

AU - Lopez-Kidwell, Virginie

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Imaginary worlds: Using visual network scales to capture perceptions of social networks

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