Thinking about closeness from a distance: quantitative approaches to social distance

This is a recording of a presentation given at Methods in Dialogue: Researching Closeness, 10 November 2010 at the University of Manchester.

This presentation explores how quantitative stratification research uses understandings of social closeness to map patterns of hierarchy, theorising stratification as a social space of relationships. Although accounts of social 'structure' have sometimes used ideas of social distance as a metaphor of relative social position, the method discussed here instead examines concrete social interaction. Exploring the nature of hierarchy involves mapping networks of 'close' or 'intimate social interaction' patterns of friendship and partnership' to identify social distance. The method uses information about real social choices, telling us about the frequency of social 'interaction'.

One advantage of this approach is that it examines social hierarchy by focussing on choices that are socially meaningful to the people concerned. However, there are conceptual and methodological issues that arise from how social closeness is defined and measured.