Cooperation and social relations. Empirical and methodological pespectives

ANDRÉS MATTA; CECILIA BRESSAN

Los Angeles

Congreso; Social Network Conference XXII; 2012

International Network for Social Network Analysis (INSNA)- University of California

Traditionally, social theory has introduced the study of social relations in the context of an ontological dualism understanding them in a referential model (as interactions) or as relational structures. Attempts to overcome this dichotomy include both relational philosophy (Bourdieu,1997) and social networks theory in which differences are subsumed in a continuum whose key is "strength" or ?intensity" (Granovetter, 1973).This divergence is derived in the methodological dualism that separates on the one hand the modeling grounded in algorithmic techniques close to physics and on the other hand the metaphorical and interpretive use of networks. With this research on inter-organizational cooperation in the economic field, made on 64 companies in the ICT industrial complex of Cordoba (Argentina), we aim to reconstruct social relationships between firms from mixed methods (SNA indicators and associated methods as MRQAP; participant observation and interviews, among others). This has allowed us to analyze and discuss the possibilities and limits of SNA for this goal and particularly to study: i) which variables to define and characterize the relations of cooperation between companies ii) what can be understood as a "strong tie" in cooperative relations iii) what aspects of social relations emerge from the study of interactions and which are qualitatively different (in particular linked with institutions and culture) and require other methods of analysis to grasp their density of meaning.