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Making the intangible visible

Using Social Network Analysis to promote the work of third sector organisations 

Small coloured game pieces on a white board

Professional audiences

What’s on offer?

This event will give voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise staff and volunteers the opportunity to:

  • Get an overview of Social Network Analysis as a method
  • Hear about a study that has applied Social Network Analysis to a voluntary sector context
  • Try out data collection for Social Network Analysis
  • Reflect on barriers and opportunities to organisations’ use of the method

What’s it about?

A significant aspect of the work that voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE) organisations do is about fostering social relationships. The social relationships that members and beneficiaries form in the process of engaging with organisations and the benefits that these can bring may be considered as one of their key impacts on people’s lives and on local communities. Yet, articulating these ‘softer’ outcomes of their work is a well-known challenge.

This event will present social network analysis (SNA) as a method to evidence this often-intangible contribution that VCFSE organisations make. SNA could help these organisations to promote their work to policymakers and funders. Better understanding of the nature of the social relations that form in the course of their work could also assist organisations with service design and improvement.

Join Nick Crossley, Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester, and Susanne Martikke, research lead at GMCVO, to find out about Social Network Analysis and explore its suitability for a voluntary sector context.

Who’s leading the event?

Nick Crossley & Susanne Martikke

Open to

Open to VCFSE staff and volunteers 

Of particular interest to

VCFSE organisations interested in using Social Network Analysis

Event Booking details

Travel and accessibility information can be found here.

If you have any accessibility requirements, please contact us by emailing susanne.martikke@gmcvo.org.uk