I am also a social network theorist focusing on integrating meaning into the study of social networks.
In a recently published paper my co-author and I argue that patterns of network structures (whether our friendship networks look like stars or squares) can be linked to the cultural context in which ties arise.
In another recent paper, I introduce a new machine-learning methodology to investigate variability in the cultural meanings of social network ties using survey data. I show that disregarding variability in the meanings we attribute to our relationships can lead to misrepresentation of network structure.
This work builds on my earlier award-winning work on lending relationships in Renaissance Florence (Poetics 2013, Social Networks 2013, and European Journal of Sociology 2014). Personal loans, my co-author and I find, was a business transaction to some and a kinship obligation to others. Elite Florentines strategically leveraged this polysemy in the meaning of loans to consolidate their businesses, preserving and exacerbating status distinctions.
In a set of two other papers (Poetics 2025 and Poetics 2025), I demonstrate the use of this technique to study the relational structure of tastes and the duality of occupations and hobbies in the United States using survey data.
In an older paper I show that individuals with fewer siblings tend to rely more on their parents and friends for help.