The Cathie Marsh Institute are proud to introduce their 2026 short courses.

 All participants will receive state of the art teaching and a lunch voucher as part of the course.

 Semantic Network Analysis 

Taught by: Nikita Basov

 Location: Ellen Wilkinson Building A3.7

Abstract: 

Semantic network induction allows for computational mapping of discoursive and cultural landscapes using a variety of verbal expressions, would these be originally written texts or transcripts of oral speech. This method relies on the idea that meaning of a word is shaped by its relations with other words in a particular social and temporal context (semantic/pragmatic interface). Semantic network mapping allows for capturing such relations, representing them as a semantic network in order to explore the corresponding discoursive/cultural landscape and identify the particular elements of this network to inspect closer. Mixed-method semantic network analysis offered by this workshop includes: (1) manually enhanced computational word collocation approach rooted in corpus linguistics to produce semantic networks of associations between words; (2) basic network analysis—to locate key nodes and links in these networks; and (3) interpretive analysis of texts—to understand these key elements in their textual contexts. Apart from capturing and understanding what is expressed directly, this approach enables revealing the latent contextual surroundings that mold the meaning of focal elements. After completing the workshop, participants will be able to use point-and-click software tools Automap and ORA to preprocess texts for semantic mapping and produce semantic networks, visualise the networks, and use them to inspect discoursive/cultural landscapes represented in texts, using basic network analysis techniques. 

Prerequisites and Software Requirements: 

• No quantitative analysis skills are necessary. 

• To ensure a smooth learning experience, participants are required to bring their laptops with two installed and pre-configured freeware tools: Automap and ORA Lite. This is a Windows software tool, Mac users would need a Windows emulator. 

• Participants are encouraged to familiarise themselves with the software using the following guides http://www.casos.cs.cmu.edu/projects/automap/CMU-ISR-13-105.pdf and http://www.casos.cs.cmu.edu/projects/ora/ORA%20QuickStart%20-%20v2.pdf. 
• Participants can bring a text of their own choice that they would like to analyse (e.g., a research paper, a newspaper article, a blog entry, a webpage, a narrative interview transcript), limiting size from 1,000 to 3,000 words for training purposes. 

Training | Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research (CMI) | The University of Manchester

Course Description

Recommended reading: 

Basov, N., W. de Nooy, and A. Nenko. 2021. Local Meaning Structures: A Mixed-method Socio-semantic Network Analysis. American Journal of Cultural Sociology, 9

. 

Basov, N., 2020. The Ambivalence of Cultural Homophily: Field Positions, Semantic Similarities, and Social Network Ties in Creative Collectives. Poetics, 78. 

 

Deichmann, D., C. Moser, J. M. Birkholz, A. Nerghes, P. Groenewegen, and S. hui Wang. 2020. Ideas with Impact: How Connectivity Shapes Idea Diffusion. Research Policy, 49. 

 

Lee, M., and J. L. Martin. 2015. Coding, Counting and Cultural Cartography. American Journal of Cultural Sociology 3:1–33.