Claire Bidart is Research Director in the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Aix Marseille Univ. Alain Degenne was Research Director in the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). He is the co-author with Michel Forsé of Introducing Social Networks (1999). Michel Grossetti is Research Director in the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS).

• Part I. Foundations of a Sociology of Relational Dynamics: 1. Understanding Relationships; 2: Analyzing Networks; Part II. Networks and their Dynamics: 3. Relationships Do not Come out of Nowhere; 4. The Dynamics of Relationships; 5. Relationships that End, Relationships that Endure; 6. Networks and their Dynamics; 7: As the Years Go By; Part III. Networks and Social Worlds; 8. Networks Have a Spatial Dimension; 9. Soft Segregation; 10. Relationships and Networks as Resources; 11. Unequal Networks; Conclusion.

'This wonderful book takes networks a giant step further, going beyond one-shot descriptions of personal networks to dynamic analyses of how personal networks change over time as people grow up, leave home, get married and unmarried, work and retire. Through it, we see the networks of France living and breathing. From virus to romance and social capital, the authors show how networks both cluster locally and leap around the world.' Barry Wellman, Director, NetLab Network