From Know-how to Know-who: Reflexive Management of Interpersonal Knowledge Networks on Social Networking Sites

尽管经济地理学对作为创新和学习工具的人际知识网络表现出越来越大的兴趣，但互联网作为建立和维持关系的工具的作用几乎没有得到系统的认识。到目前为止，基于互联网的通信对个人网络的实践和地域的影响在很大程度上尚未被探索。首先，就数量而言，互联网在建立和维护人际网络方面的作用越来越大，因此被忽视了。第二，人际网络向显性“认识谁”的质的转化尚未得到承认。最值得注意的是，社交网站（SNS）将网络的私人领域从内到外改变了：社交网站演变成一个公开展示联系和可见的声誉表达的场所。此外，社交网络指标（Social Networking Metrics， SNM）和社交网络指南（Social Networking Guidelines， SNG）提倡对社交网络有更多反思性的认知和更具战略性的方法。因此，社交网络不再是日常商业活动的副产品，而是成为了一种商业实践，其目的是建立、维护和利用社会资本。本研究项目旨在了解这种由互联网引发的转变，并试图探索其对网络实践的影响，以及人际知识网络的结构和地理。在此过程中，该项目旨在从理论上澄清和实证证实技术，社会实践和地理如何共同发展。该项目从互联网将人际网络转变为一种表演性活动的假设开始：社会实践日益与社会网络分析的理论和模型相一致，从而产生了一种新的网络实践质量。网络——由基于互联网的算法增强——日益变成商业联系、资源和信息的竞争舞台。实证上，本研究项目主要关注硅谷和柏林两个互联网产业集群的公司创始人环境。这种设置不仅可以比较两个不同地区不同社会实践的出现；它还使我们能够设想全球互联网中心与快速崛起的欧洲集群之间的扩散和适应过程。在方法上，研究项目包括三个模块：(1)设计一个文件分析，以确定SNS， SNM和SNG的优势；(2)在线调查和探索性的两阶段访谈系列将阐明不断变化的网络行为实践；(3)应用社会网络分析的定量方法揭示这些实践对人际知识网络结构和地理的影响。

Although economic geography has shown increasing interest in interpersonal knowledge networks as vehicles for innovation and learning, the role of the Internet as a tool for establishing and maintaining relations has hardly been appreciated in a systematic fashion. Up until now, the impacts of internet-based communication on the practices and geographies of personal networking are largely unexplored. First, in mere quantitative terms, the increasing role of the Internet in establishing and maintaining interpersonal networks thus remains neglected. Second, the qualitative transformation of interpersonal networks into explicit "know who" has not yet been acknowledged. Most notably, Social Networking Sites (SNS) turn the private sphere of networks inside-out: SNS evolve into a public display of connections and visible expressions of reputation. In addition, Social Networking Metrics (SNM) and Social Networking Guidelines (SNG) advocate more reflexive perceptions of and more strategic approaches to networking. Social networking, then, is no longer a by-product of everyday business activities but becomes a business practice in its own right - aimed at building, maintaining, and harnessing social capital. This research project seeks to appreciate this internet-induced transformation and attempts to explore its consequences for practices of networking as well as the structure and geography of interpersonal knowledge networks. In doing so, the project aims to theoretically clarify and empirically substantiate how technology, social practice and geography co-evolve. The project starts from the assumption that the Internet turns interpersonal networking into a performative activity: Social practice is increasingly aligned with theories and models of social network analysis and thereby gives rise to a new quality of networking practices. Networking - enhanced by internet-based algorithms - increasingly turns into an arena of competition for business contacts, resources and information. Empirically, the research project focuses on the company founder milieus of two clusters of the Internet-Industry: Silicon Valley and Berlin. This setting not only allows to compare the emergence of distinct social practices in two different locations; it also enables us to conceive of the processes of diffusion and adaptation between the global center of the Internet-Industry and a rapidly emerging European cluster. Methodologically, the research project comprises three modules: (1) a document analysis is designed to identify the affordances of SNS, SNM and SNG; (2) an online-survey and explorative two-stage interview-series with company founders will elucidate changing practices of networking behaviour, and (3) quantitative methods of social network analysis are applied to reveal the impact of these practices on the structure and geography of interpersonal knowledge networks.