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Social Categories and Boundary-Making: Exploring the Potential of Interactive Visual Tools to Study Boundary Work within Personal Networks.

Created on 07 Sep 2026

Authors

Nuria Targarona Rifa, Louise Ryan, Alejandro Ciordia

Published in

Sociological research online. Volume 31. Issue 3. Pages 524-543. Epub Aug 18, 2025.

Abstract

Research on categorisation and boundary work has often focused on how institutional actors draw boundaries between groups of individuals, overlooking how individuals informally contest or reinforce these boundaries and categories. In this article, we make the case for new interactive qualitative data collection strategies to inductively explore social categorisation and boundary-making processes within personal networks, bringing together the potential of visualisation and personal network research. We introduce an innovative methodological procedure for in-depth interviewing that consists of asking participants to report on specific network members while using two novel interactive visual tools displayed on electronic devices. By discussing examples from our research, we illustrate the method's potential in the data collection and analysis stages and highlight the technical, methodological, and conceptual contributions it can make to the study of social boundaries.

PMID:
42703473
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 07 Sep 2026.

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