Apologies for cross posting.... Call for Papers: Tools and Tales of Social and Spatial Network Analysis Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting 9-13 April 2013 Los Angeles, CA Organizers: Joe Eckert, Department of Geography, University of Washington Monica Stephens, Department of Geography, Humboldt State University Networks are a long-standing staple of spatial analysts. Social network analysis (SNA), on the other hand, is underexplored in geography while gaining notoriety in other disciplines of social science (e.g., sociology, information studies, epidemiology, organizational studies). One way in which these networks form is through digital interactions between users of social media platforms. Drawing from work from internet geographers (Zook, Graham, etc...), we know that these interactions are in turn informed and created within contexts of physical space. We seek scholars that are using spatially grounded qualitative and quantitative network analysis to ask, "how do we bring social network analysis methods and theory into conversation with geographic theory and spatial analysis?" Work undertaken by analysts using geographic information systems (GIS) and social network analysis (SNA) are parallel in many ways, including shared analytical techniques and vocabulary. However, while both seek explanations for the relationships among entities; geographers seek spatial context, whereas social network analysts seek a social context. We feel that these two modes of analysis richly complement one another, and geographers might be well served by examining the ways in which networks of place interact with digitally enabled social networks. We seek papers that meet this broad theme, but offer the following questions to consider: - In what ways are digitally enabled networks created via the spaces in which platform users physically inhabit? - How are digital enabled networks both implicitly and explicitly spatial? Do the digital traces of our lives left as user-generated content speak to the ways in which we experience and create space? -Which SNA tools are useful for spatial analysis, which spatial tools are useful for SNA? - How can theoretical work on network theory be brought to bear on empirical practices of social network analysis? - How might social network analysis further nuance different conceptualizations of network theory? - How can geographers methodologically examine bipartite (2-mode) spaces? How can we understand this in GIS? - How can GIS or geographic analysis begin to examine triadic structures in social data? - Is GIS or other geospatial analysis complicit in the construction of social network space? Could it be? Should it be? We welcome studies that explore any of these issues, or any that more broadly address themes of social network analysis, network theory, and the urban networks that comprise the digital. Please send your 250 word abstract to the organizers, Monica ( Monica.Stephens@humboldt.edu) and Joe (jeckert1@uw.edu) by October 12, 2012. We will inform authors with successful submissions on October 17, 2012. This session will be part of #GEO/CODE 2013: Geoweb, Big Data and Society organized by the New Mappings Collaboratory ( http://newmaps.as.uky.edu/geocode-2013-geoweb-big-data-and-society-call-calls-papers ).