Simmel’s contribution to network sociology

• Main Author: Breno Augusto Souto Maior Fontes
• Format: Article
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Colegio de México 2015-09-01
• Series: Estudios Sociológicos
• Subjects: Simmel; redes sociales; sociología
• Online Access: http://estudiossociologicos.colmex.mx/index.php/es/article/view/1386

This article aims to show the original contribution of Simmel’s sociology to network sociology in the form of an outline of it. Analysis of social networks and network theory together constitute a major field of study within contemporary social sciences. A significant part of this investigative agenda was worked through by Simmel at the beginning of the twentieth century. His reflexions largely take as their starting-point the reality of fin-de-siècle Berlin and its agitated daily life as an European metropolis. The questions Simmel raises through his social research methodology based on the form and content of processes of sociability remain thought-provoking and fruitful, giving us some precious hints on the methodological path towards understanding contemporary reality.