ABSTRACT
A social network encompasses the ensemble of personal relationships among different actors (see Straus, 2002) and is typically associated with concepts such as social capital, social integration, or social support (see Hollstein and Pfeffer, 2010; Diaz-Bone, 2006). Network analysis aims at understanding and visualising the structure and functioning of social networks (see Schönhuth and Gamper, 2013; Straus, 2013; 2002). However, so far the analysis of the relation between social networks, space, and territory has been neglected. From the perspective of a relational concept of space (see among others Löw, 2008), social networks can be considered as social spaces located at a specific territory or existing across different places. This article describes two different procedures of reconstructing personal social networks, paying particular attention to the spatial dimension of social networks by looking at multi-local family arrangements. Being aware that network analysis has long been associated with quantitative research methods, we aim to highlight the potential of qualitative network analysis by taking the example of the digital network mapping tool VennMaker (see Lelong et al. 2016; Gamper et al. 2012) and the analogue socio-spatial network game (see Schroeder et al. 2010; Picot and Schroeder 2007). Doing this, we present and discuss their application, advantages, and limitations. Empirical data are taken from two different studies on multi-local families, researching the everyday life under the condition of spatial separation due to work mobility and parental divorce (Schlinzig 2017; Schier, 2016).
