Epistemic and methodological aspects of network analysis

Abstract

In this article, I present a synthesis of some fundamental works in the field of social networks and try to highlight key concepts, propositions, and methodological elements that make up the foundation of this approach to social realities. In the first part, I present the main propositions of the relational paradigm as a distinct paradigm in sociology. In the second part, I show which were the first attempts to study society in relational terms. The last part of the paper highlights the operational concepts most frequently used in social network analysis. The main reason for writing this article comes from the poor use of this approach in Romanian sociology.