Additional resources

Below you will find additional reading material (including both foundational texts and the latest publications) on relational theory as well as links to relevant training and summer school opportunities.

If you have a new publication applying relational social theory/methods, do get in touch and we will be more than happy to share it with and through our network!

Reading material

Foundational texts on relational social theory

  • Arendt, Hannah The Origins of Totalitarianism. 1951/1958. The Human Condition. 1958.
  • Topolski, Anya  Arendt, Levinas and a Politics of Relationality. Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.
  • Kavalski, Emilian, The Guanxi of Relational International Theory. Routledge, 2017.
  • Katzenstein, Peter (ed.) Uncertainty and Its Discontents. Worldviews in World Politics. Cambridge University Press, 2022.
  • Kurki, Milja, International Relations in a Relational Universe. Oxford University Press, 2020.
  • Trownsell, Tamara, Amaya Querejazu Escobari, Giorgio Shani, Navnita Chadha Behera, Jarrad Reddekop, and Arlene B. Tickner. ‘Recrafting International Relations through Relationality’, E-International Relations (2019). https://www.e-ir.info/2019/01/08/recrafting-international-relations-through-relationality/
  • Jackson, Patrick and Daniel Nexon (1999),  “Relations Before States:: Substance, Process and the Study of World Politics”, European Journal of International Relations, 5(3):291-332. doi:10.1177/1354066199005003002. 
  • Slaughter, Anne-Marie, The Chessboard and the Web: Strategies of Connection in a Networked World, Yale University Press, 2017.
  • Youatt, Rafi (2020) Interspecies Politics: Nature, States, Borders, University of Michigan Press.

Methodology handbooks

  • Lusher, D., Koskinen, J., and Robins, G. (2013). Exponential Random Graph Models for Social Networks: Theory, Methods, and Applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (on the use of ERGMs).
  • Robins, G. (2015). Doing Social Network Research. Network-Based Research Design for Social Scientists. London: Sage (good introduction to social network analysis).
  • Wasserman, S., and Faust, K. (1994). Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (reference book on the methodology of social network analysis).

Latest publications (within the last five years)

  • Baller, I. (2017). “Specialists, Party Members, or National Representatives: Patterns in Co-Sponsorship of Amendments in the European Parliament”. European Union Politics, Vol. 18(3) 469-490.
  • Baird, T. (2017). “Who Speaks for the European Border Security Industry? A Network Analysis”, European Security, Vol. 26(1) 37-58.
  • Bossner, F., and Nagel, M. (2020). Discourse Networks and Dual Screening: Analyzing Roles, Content and Motivations in Political Twitter Conversations. Politics and Governance, Vol. 8(2) 311-325
  • Bravo-Laguna, C. (2021). “Transboundary Crisis Management under the Volcano: the Case of the Icelandic Ash Cloud”. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, Vol. 29(1) 77-88.
  • Bunea, A., Ibenskas, R., and Weiler, F. (2021). “Interest Group Networks in the European Union”, European Journal of Political Research, DOI: 10.1111/1475-6765.12471
  • Huhe, N., Naurin, D., and Thomson, R. (2018). “The Evolution of Political Networks: Evidence from the Council of the European Union”, European Union Politics, Vol. 19(1) 25–51.
  • Huhe, N., Naurin, D., and Thomson, R. (2020). “Don’t Cry for Me Britannia: the Resilience of the European Union to Brexit”. European Union Politics, Vol. 21(1) 152-172
  • Knoke, D., Diani, M., Hollway, J., and Christopoulos, D. (2021). Multimodal Political Networks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 
  • Malang, T., Brandenberger, L., and Leifeld, P. (2019). “Networks and Social Influence in European Legislative Politics”, British Journal of Political Science, Vol. 49(4) 1475-1498.
  • Malang, T., and Leifeld, P. (2021). “The Latent Diffusion Network among National Parliaments in the Early Warning System of the European Union”. Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 59(4) 873-890.
  • Martinsen, D. S., Schrama, R., and Mastenbroek, E. (2021). “Who Interacts with Whom? Drivers of Networked Welfare Governance in Europe”. British Journal of Political Science, Vol. 51(4) 1636-1653.
  • Nagel, M., and Satoh, K. (2019). Protesting Iconic Megaprojects. A Discourse Network Analysis of the Evolution of the Conflict over Stuttgart 21. Urban Studies, Vol. 56(8) 1681-1700.
  • Nowell, B. L., Velez, A-L. K., Hano, M. C., Sudweeks, J., Albrecht, K., and Steelman, T. (2018). “Studying Networks in Complex Problem Domains: Advancing Methods in Boundary Specification”. Perspectives of Public Management and Governance, Vol. 1(4) 273-282.
  • Rèfle, J. E., Fischer, M., and Maggetti, M. (2022). “Informal Europeanization Processes and Domestic Governance Networks”. European Policy Analysis, DOI: 10.1002/epa2.1138
  • Røren, P. (2020). “On the Social Status of the European Union”. Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 58(3) 706-722.
  • Scott, T. A., and Ulibarri, N. (2019). “Taking Network Analysis Seriously: Methodological Improvements for Governance Network Scholarship”. Perspectives of Public Management and Governance. Vol. 2(2) 89-101.
  • Siciliano, M. D., Wang, W., and Medina, A. (2020). “Mechanisms of Network Foundation in the Public Sector: a Systematic Review of the Literature”. Perspectives of Public Management and Governance, DOI:10.1093/ppmgov/gvaa017
  • Vantaggiato, F. P. (2019). “Networking for Resources: How Regulators Use Networks to Compensate for Lower Staff Levels”. Journal of European Public Policy, Vol. 26(10) 1540-1559
  • Vantaggiato, F. P. (2019). “The Drivers of Regulatory Networking: Policy Learning between Homophily and Convergence”. Journal of Public Policy, Vol. 39(3) 443-464.
  • Wagner, P., Ylä, Anttila, T., Gronow, A., Ocelík, P., Schmidt, L., and Delicado, A. (2020). “Information Exchange Networks at the Climate-Science Policy Interface: Evidence from the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, and Portugal”. Governance, Vol. 34(1) 211-228.
  • Windzio, M., Teney, C., and Lenkewitz, S. (2021). “A Network Analysis of Intra-EU Migration Flows: How Regulatory Policies, Economic Inequalities, and the Network Topology Shape the Intra-EU Migration Space”. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 47(5) 951-969
  • Wonka, A., and Haunss, S. (2020). “Cooperation in Networks: Political Parties and Interest Groups in EU Policy-Making in Germany”. European Union Politics, Vol. 21(1) 130-151.

Relevant summer schools and training opportunities

  • SNA course, ECPR Summer School 
  • Introduction to SNA and Advanced SNA courses, Essex Methods Summer School 
  • POLNET, Konstanz University
  • St. Petersburg Summer School on Network Analysis. Centre for German and European Studies, St. Petersburg State University – Bielefeld University

Relevant academic networks and associations