Philosophy and Method in the Social Sciences Dialogical Networks

Bringing together two decades of work by the authors, this book shows how the concept of the dialogical network developed and outlines the key characteristics of dialogical networks, demonstrating the importance of historical contingency in our knowledge of them and highlighting the fact that ‘doing history’ is part of research. This book brings together two decades of work by the authors on dialogical networks, showing how the concept of the dialogical network developed through series of connected case studies and clarifying the concept through historical analysis. Identifying the key characteristics of dialogical networks and showing that knowledge of them, though formulated in the abstract, is affected by historical contingencies, it demonstrates that work on dialogical networks required the work of a practical historian, connecting contemporary work to foregoing studies. As such, this volume represents an original study of how doing history is a part of research and sheds light on the ways in which people use the past in their social activities.