JRC Place on dd Month YYYY – Event Name 1INSNA: Sunbelt XXX: Riva del Garda June 29 – July 4 2010 1

Objectives & Context

Method Results

Final

Observations

Unused

Section Space 1

Unused

Section Space 2

Eliciting Communities from personal network visualisations:

Ties, groups and communities

Romina Cachia & Isidro Maya-Jariego

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[Objectives & Context]

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� To explore whether a link exists between personal

networks expressed through different media and

communities

� To increase understanding of the meaning of personal

communities in the context of mobile people

� To test an exploratory method for eliciting communities

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Boundaries: Locational vs Relational Communities

Experience: Sense of Community

Personal Networks in New Media:Virtual Communities

Mobiles Phones & SNS

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Q1: Which type of communities emerge, where are they

located and how do respondents communicate with their

communities?

Q2: What is the level of community experienced?

Q3: What are the major characteristics of the personal

networks derived?

Can personal networks be used

as a proxy to elicit communities?

Research Questions

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N= 15 foreigners living in Seville

Age: between 24-37 years (Mean age 31.5 years)

Eight Nationalities: Belgian, Brasilian, British, Chilean, German,

Italian, Maltese, Polish & Turkish

Lived in Seville between less than 1 year to over 10 years

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[Method]

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Exploratory study based on combination of methods:

Personal network analysis

Structured Interviews in the form of questionnaire

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Can you list the 20 most important people for you? People you

feel you can depend on if you need support (emotional,

financial, social, professional or other)?

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Face-to

-face

Mobile

Social

Networ

king

Sites

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Spontaneous Method vs Personal Networks Method

Most Important People Face-to-face

SNS Mobile

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Flamenco Community Seville

Flamenco Colleagues

Turkish Friends in Seville

Work mates

Flamenco Teachers

Ex-colleagues

Caving Friends

Family Turkish in Seville

Caving Club

Extended Family

Engineering Community Turkey

Flamenco Teachers Community

Alfalfa Community

Distinction between

groups &

communities present

at all times.

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[Results]

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RQ: Can personal networks be used as a

proxy to elicit communities?

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Total Communities: 175

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Personal networks method has the potential to aid respondents tospeak about their groups and communities

For many respondents groups and communities are interrelated –Respondents are not thinking too much of the different ecological position of their groups and communities

Respondents perceive their ties more in terms of groups and networks � more thinking in terms of multiple personal networks

Role in community is perceived as being latent (as opposed to active involvement associated with traditional communities)

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RQ1: Which type of communities emerge, where are they

located and how do respondents communicate with their

communities?

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• Relational communities vs

locational communities for

mobile individuals

• Important role of media

communications

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Means of Communication M SD

Face-to-Face 8.87 4.01

Email 8.33 3.13

Mobile 7.87 3.52

Social Networking Sites 6.27 2.49

Highest Score:

Mobile – I prefer face-to-face communication (highest score

2.6 (SD 1.44))

SNS – I find SNS to be a great way to communicate, as I can

reach a lot of people in a short amount of time (highest score

4.27 (SD 1.28))

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RQ2: What is the level of community experienced?

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Groups: mediated structures enabling connection between individuals

and the wider community

Communities � over-arching sense of community

Groups -> specific and functional sense of community: providing

practical ways for individuals to participate in larger communities

Keeping distinction between groups and communities present at all

times, made respondents think harder on what they considered

groups and communities

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Rq3: What are the major characteristics

of personal networks?

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16.87 17.27 16.80

- Difficulty in listing 20 people: despite contacts on mobile

phone 140 (range 50-300) and SNS 178 (range 50-500)

- The term support

- Average of 4 ties / person in all networks and average of 9 ties

in three networks (different levels of ties: intimate – weaker)

- Support is coming more from friends 21.5 (SD 6.31) more than

family 6.8 (SD 2.78)

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[Final Observations]

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o Personal networks (PN) have the potential to develop a

community-generator method – PN method generated

x3 more communities than the spontaneous method

o Role of groups cannot be ignored. Groups and

communities are interrelated.

o Communities provide a latent over arching sense of

community.

o Groups provide a more specific and functional sense

of belonging

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o Relational vs locational communities (2/3 of communities

mentioned are located outside Seville – role of

communication)

o Communities are not in decline but they are expressed

differently (175 communities – mean 11.7)

o Exploratory study -> results cannot be generalised

(limitations: small sample; time consuming; less applicable for

large samples)

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Many thanks for your attention

Questions?

email: romina.cachia@ec.europa.euisidromj@us.es