The previous three chapters considered different strategies to find out about society. The present chapter on the one hand suggests one more strategy for finding out: exploring social networks. On the other hand, it provides a particular perspective on what you may already have found out: looking at it through the lens of social networks. Because social interaction in the world today often takes place beyond traditional boundaries of family, village, state, or social class, this chapter shifts the focus to one that looks at society as a collection of social networks. New forms of social interconnections are emerging, inviting metaphors such as ‘the human web’, ‘network society’ and ‘the connected world’ (McNeill & McNeill, 2003; van Dijk, 2006; Castells, 2010). The widespread use of these metaphors suggests that old conceptual models no longer suffice and that new models may be needed which do justice more fully to the relational nature of society. Naturalistic inquiry's contribution to this relational perspective is to look at how society is made up of social networks, how power and prestige structure networks, and how networks create opportunities for some people but exclude and marginalize others. Approaching networks from the viewpoint of ordinary members of society, this chapter focuses explicitly on how society looks to those in networks and to those outside of them. It shows how an analysis of social networks is crucial in the task of ‘disentangling’ society, and how, building on the ideals of naturalistic inquiry, this task begins with an understanding of social relations in everyday life.

The chapter continues first by clarifying important differences between the analysis of social networks and social network theory. These are often used as synonyms; however, it is argued that, whereas naturalistic inquiry has of old embraced the former, it tends to be critical of the latter. To better appreciate how social network analysis may be applied in naturalistic inquiry, the chapter then looks at three key thinkers credited for their contribution to a relational view on society. From their ideas, the chapter synthesizes a naturalistic approach to social network analysis, subsequently applying it to two classical empirical studies in the field.