The 7th European Conference on Social Network (EUSN 2023) took place from 4 to 8 September 2023. The event, held for the first time in Slovenia this year at the Faculty of Social Sciences, was co-organised by the Centre for Methodology and Informatics, UL FDV.
The conference was attended by experts from various specialties related to the field of social network analysis: sociologists, statisticians and data scientists, economists, humanists, and others who are involved in social network analysis in their work.
The participants were introduced by prof. Anuška Ferligoj, former Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and a prominent researcher in the field of network analysis at home and abroad. Dr. Ferligoj has also made important contributions to the establishment and development of study programmes supporting this field, such as Social Informatics, Applied Statistics and Statistics.
More than 200 papers were presented, with more than 230 participants discussing the development of network analysis methodology and applied research in network analysis in a variety of fields, including criminal networks, networks in the field of sport and collaborative networks in science. The conference was attended by researchers from all over the world, including Chile, Canada and Korea.
The event was marked by two keynote lectures. In the first, Prof. Dr. Károly Takács stressed the importance of taking into account local social mechanisms when studying social phenomena and collective dynamics at the macro level, and in the second keynote lecture Prof. Dr. Betina Hollstein presented an in-depth study of Simmel's research work from the perspective of the impact of life events on the structure of personal networks.
An important part of the conference was also a series of organised workshops, where participants improved their competences in the field of network analysis methodology, as well as in the use of state-of-the-art software solutions for network analysis.
The conference was marked by the study of social factors at the micro level, which result in important social phenomena such as inequality and conflict, but also shed light on the way interpersonal relationships and change are shaped in the digital world. The insights presented at the conference can lead to better policies, technological innovation and deeper personal development, fostering healthy relationships and more cohesive societies.
In addition to the international invited guests, papers were presented by professors, researchers and students from Social Science Methodology and Social Science Informatics PhD programmes, Applied Statistics master program and Statistics PhD programm.