Critical Analysis of the Use of the Socio-Spatial Network Game in a Study in Shared Physical Custody to capture the Children's Standpoint

Murru, Sarah;Theys, Coralie
(2021) IV ISA Forum of Sociology: RC06 Family Research – Innovative and Creative Methods to Study Family Life — Location: Porto Alegre, Brésil (online) (23.February.2021)

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  • Murru, Sarahorcid-logoUCLouvain
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  • Theys, CoralieUCLouvain
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Abstract
Based on an ongoing research project entitled MobileKids: Children in Multi-Local, Post-Separation Families (ERC Starting Grant project – supervision: Prof. Laura Merla), this paper critically examines the use of the Socio-Spatial Network Game (SSNG) as an innovative method to observe children in shared physical custody’s experiences of multi-locality. The problematic is to understand how the lives of children are affected by divorce, mobility and multilocality in the context of shared custody arrangements, and how children accommodate to this family situation. The SSNG is a board game where children can concretely construct the experience of their multi-local everyday life (Schier et al 2015). In other words, it is as a space sensitive tool for qualitative egocentric network analysis, that is developed for research with children and allows great creative freedom in an aim to capture information about social relations and their spatial dimensions. This paper will thus start by exposing the method, its pertinence to capture the children’s standpoint, as well as an ethical reflection of its use with minors. As we all mobilize the SSNG during our first encounter with children, we then propose a critical and reflexive analysis on the strengths and weaknesses of using this method in a collective project such as MobileKids – where each researcher focuses on a specific research question. In particular, we present how the method was used to document social networks in two separate sub-cases: one that focuses specifically on children’s social networks, and the other that is framed as an institutional ethnography, documenting everyday practices.
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Murru, S., & Theys, C. (2021). Critical Analysis of the Use of the Socio-Spatial Network Game in a Study in Shared Physical Custody to capture the Children’s Standpoint. IV ISA Forum of Sociology: RC06 Family Research – Innovative and Creative Methods to Study Family Life, Porto Alegre, Brésil (online). https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/117652