La dispersión geográfica de las redes personales: cálculo y significado.

Abstract

This article compares three indices that represent the geographical dispersion of personal networks. The first index is built on the computation of distances for each Ego with their Alters and among each one them. After calculating the total distance, it is obtained the average for each Ego. The absolute value of the logarithm of this average is the proposed measure. The second index is constructed taking into account only the relations Ego-Alter of the above formula and the third, common in such studies, shows the distribution of active contacts in a ranking of distances (same neighbourhood, same city, Catalonia, rest of Spain, other countries).The comparison is made exploring the effect of the three indexes on the exchanged social support of people living in Catalonia. The data are taken from the survey of personal networks in the project CASREDIN, interested in exploring social networks and social cohesion in Catalonia. Thus, the resident population divided between "national” and "migrants" and in each of the groups social support is evaluated depending on the geographic dispersion of personal networks. Finally, we propose a discussion of the results within the framework of the theory of "transnationalism".

Keywords

• personal networks
• transnationalism
• migration
• geographical dispersion