Call for Connections pieces in honor of Harrison White

Call for short pieces in honor of Harrison White for Connections (official journal of the International Network of Social Network Analysis; https://www.insna.org/connections)

Eminent networks scholar and 1984 Simmel awardee Harrison Colyar White passed away on May 18, 2024, in his Tucson home aged 94. As an early convert from physics to sociology, White has played an outsized impact in the development of social network analysis between 1960 and 2010. His early contributions from the 1960s and 1970s have been hailed as the “Harvard thrust” (Freeman) or the “Harvard breakthrough” (Scott). They center around the notions of vacancy chains and structural equivalence, and the method of blockmodeling analysis. While at Harvard, he shaped two extraordinary generations of graduate students, including Simmel awardees Phillip Bonacich, Ronald Breiger, Kathleen Carley, Bonnie Erickson, Mark Granovetter, Philippa Pattison, and Barry Wellman. His ideas shaped the new economic sociology and the sociology of art. Since 1990, White was the driving force behind “relational sociology” (Emirbayer), offering a theoretical account of social networks and their role in the social world. This approach combines network structuralism with a focus on meaning and culture in networks, as well as on the dynamics of social processes in them.

To honor these far-reaching contributions to social network research, Connections invites short pieces of two to five pages. These may center on personal memories, as well as on reflections of White’s impact on personal intellectual trajectories and on developments in the field. The contributions will be selected on the basis of their relevance. Proper articles of up 40 pages will also be considered.

Please submit your contributions until October 31, 2024, via the Connections Editorial Manager and make sure to specify “Special Series for Harrison White” in the drop-down menu “Select Article Type”. Connections publishes accepted articles online, open access under Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license. For any questions, please contact Jan Fuhse (jan.fuhse@hu-berlin.de).