Abstract

I agree with the main thrust of Crossley's paper. I provide evidence that his views are not entirely new. Qualitative, and a mix of qualitative and quantitative, approaches have been used in social network research. I differ with Crossley in his interpretation of quantitative researchers' approach to social networks, and provide evidence that they have examined the social worlds of networks as well as their structures. I highlight some difficulties with his proposal. These include the difficulties of applying qualitative methods to large social networks and of combining qualitative and quantitative data adequately when both types of data are not collected from all members of a network. I propose the combined use of qualitative and quantitative questions in surveys of large networks as a solution to these dilemmas.