“Bipartite Networks in History” (Res-Hist Workshop), 21-22 October

The ENP-China team is pleased to announce that we will host the 6th workshop series “Networks and History” (Réseaux et Histoire) in Aix-en-Provence, next October 21-22. The program and papers are available on the Res-Hist blog. The event can be attended online via Zoom (please register here to attend). Note: the presentations will be given in French.

The topic this year is “bipartite networks in history“. Bipartite or two-mode networks are networks that involve two types of nodes – e.g. actors/movies, events/participants, colleges/students, companies/board directors… Although there are very common in historical research, there is very little literature on the methodological and practical problems they raise. There is no consensus among scholars on how to best handle them. Popular softwares remain poorly equipped to visualize and analyze multimodal networks. We still need to define routines to address their specific properties.

The workshop will gather a dozen of advanced and younger scholars specialized in a variety of fields to discuss these questions through concrete case studies. The participants will explore a wide range of innovative options for handling bipartite networks from various perspectives ranging from architectural networks in modern Italy to contemporary financial markets and monks’ circulations in medieval Europe.

Although the program is not directly related to modern China, networks are nevertheless central to our approach of elites. Network analysis has increasingly gained currency in Chinese studies over the last decade (see for instance the recent workshop organized by H.Rudolph and S. Chen as a companion for the special issue of the Journal of Historical Network Research). Whatever your field of expertise, fresh ideas and source of inspiration often came from outside.

The event is co-organized by the “Res-Hist” research group and the ENP-China team. It has been generously supported by the Institut de Recherches Asiatiques (Irasia) and the Faculty ALLSH at Aix-Marseille University.