Friendship is a natural ally of networks. If you wanted to visualise friendship in any way, you would probably choose some network-like structure. Because I was interested in some form of visualisation of the friendship networks I am working on, I applied for the Interconnected Summer School. In the end, I did not really get to know any concrete tools or software to use in my research — quite the opposite: Firstly, I found myself in good company being sceptic of social network analysis as it is usually implemented in the social sciences; moreover, others were also having difficulties defining their networks and conceptualising the links they want to establish. Secondly, Claire Lemercier’s article on networks in historical research proved really helpful, because she warns against using network analysis carelessly and directing the attention to the fact that “networks” are rather a means than an end of historical research.

So I will definitely go home bearing in mind that the closeness of friendship and networks is not inevitable; and that it is worth thinking carefully about which specific method (in contrast to a vague general concept of network) to employ and to what end. However, this is also what I missed: It would surely have been interesting to move the focus from specific research projects (which tend to be difficult to relate to for those who are not to some extent familiar with the subject) to more methodological and theoretical reflections.