Elisa Bellotti is lecturer in sociology at the University of Manchester and a member of the Mitchell Centre for Social Network Analysis. Before arriving in Manchester in 2008, she worked as research fellow at University of Turin and University of Bozen, Italy. She completed a Ph.D in Sociology and Methodology of Social Research in 2006 at Catholic University of Milan. She publishes in international peer reviewed journals. Among her recent publications: "Getting funded. Multi-level network of Physicists in Italy." (2012) Social Networks 34, 2: 215-229 and the monograph Amicizie. Le reti amicali dei giovani single. (2008) Milano: Franco Angeli.

1. Introduction 2. Paradigm War and the Roots of Social Networks 3. The Constitutive Bricks of Qualitative Networks: Actors, relations, networks 4. Talking Ties: Micro processess of local structures in friendship networks 5. Ethnography of Overlapping Networks: Resource exchange in street groups 6. Scientific Communities: Describing social worlds in research collaborations 7. Coda