We are pleased to announce the publication of a new issue of the Journal of Historical Network Research (Vol 6 No 1) which consists of the following articles:
Clément Dutrey
A kinship network analysis of Palmyrene genealogies
Tom Brughmans, Olympia Bobou, Nathalia B. Kristensen, Rikke R. Thomsen, Jesper V. Jensen, Eivind H. Seland, Rubina Raja
Can historians trust centrality?
Sébastien de Valeriola
Understanding the Early Modern English Coastal Trading Community
Leanna T P Brinkley
The Atlantic Wine Trade, intra-Asian Networks and the Case of Robert Cowan
Edward Owen Teggin
From a Local Periodical to a Global Enterprise
Zef Segal
Transnational Network Formation in the Medium of Cultural Magazines
Jörg Lehmann, Hanno Ehrlicher, Prof. Dr.
Ingeborg van Vugt
About JHNR
While interdisciplinary research into the relational paradigm has produced an impressive body of work across the social and political sciences and also, increasingly, among historians, there is as yet no international medium of publication devoted to the study of networks in their historical contexts. This has put scholars with an interest in historical network research—both historians and historical sociologists—at a great disadvantage, and has meant that they have long been accustomed to publishing research papers in non-historical journals. The situation for historians interested in network research is further complicated by academic and cultural idiosyncrasies, since much of the groundbreaking and recent research into historical networks in the English-speaking world has been carried out by historical sociologists, rather than social historians, and has thus remained mostly outside the sphere of traditional academic history departments. This has naturally also influenced the means of publication for research in this area; preferred journals such as Social Networks and the American Journal of Sociology focus heavily on methodological and theoretical aspects. In short, there are no international publications devoted to the study of networks (social and otherwise) from a specifically historical perspective.
This is the gap that the Journal of Historical Network Research is keen to fill. It publishes outstanding and original contributions which apply the theories and methodologies of social network analysis to historical research, helps advance the epistemological and theoretical understanding of social network analysis in the historical, social and political sciences, and promotes empirical research on historical social interactions.
The journal promotes the interplay between different areas of historical research (in the broadest sense), social and political sciences, and different research traditions and disciplines, while strengthening the dialogue between network research and "traditional" historical research. The journal serves as a meeting place for the traditional hermeneutics of historical research and its concomitant emphasis on contextualisation and historical source criticism (as present in traditional academic historical journals) on the one hand, and the theory-heavy and/or sometimes overly technical discussion of methodological and technological issues (which predominates in publications focused on "pure" or sociological network research) on the other. All contents are made available free of charge to readers and authors following Open Access principles.
