News
Talking Social Networks at Sunbelt 2025
3 Jul 2025
Johannes Glückler, Jakob Hoffmann, and Daniel Wagner presented their work in Paris
We had the pleasure of attending this year’s Sunbelt Conference in Paris, hosted by the International Network for Social Network Analysis (INSNA) at Sorbonne University and Sciences Po. We had a great week discussing the latest research on social network analysis (SNA) and were particularly excited to learn about SNA approaches from so many different academic disciplines.
One highlight for our group was the session on "Social Networks, Spatial Context, and Innovation", organized by Robert Panitz and Johannes Glückler. Their session focused on the relationship between social networks and spatial contexts – and explored how these two factors influence innovation and regional development. The goal of the session was to better understand how networks form, evolve, and impact regions.
Session Speakers included:
- Gloria Serra-Coch: Close and Connected: Integrating social networks and the geography of innovation to analyse the diffusion of energy technologies
- Etienne Polge: Dynamic multiscale analysis of actor networks involved in managing protected natural areas
- Robert Panitz: Growing together or staying separated? Interlocking directorates in the financial and automotive industries
- Zhiyi Jin: Regional differences in socioeconomic assortativity of acquaintanceship ties
Johannes Glückler also presented his research on the social mechanisms that promote consistent rulings at the European Unified Patent Court (UPC) – despite its decentralized structure and the diversity of legal traditions across Europe. You can dive deeper into this topic here: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/12/5/311
Daniel Wagner and Jakob Hoffmann presented their latest research on governing collaborative innovation in the field of the bioeconomy and how reliance on social logics of exchange shifts during crisis – here: in times of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A big thank you to our colleague and collaborator Emmanuel Lazega and all the other organizers for an excellently designed and managed conference in such remarkable venues!