The main purpose of this paper is to assess how networks have been conceptualized and studied within a select cross-section of the social science literature on transnational networks (TNs). The study of TNs has only recently become a field in its own right. What sparked the scholarly interest in TNs? Researchers (Kriesberg 1997; Smith 1997: 2; Rucht 1999) mark the rise of the field from the mid 1970?s, when there began a series of UN-sponsored conferences on the environment, women?s rights and human rights that was matched by a noticeable surge in the number of NGOs world-wide, particularly those operating within international arenas. The 1990?s brought even more attention to TNs, sparked by the 1992 Earth Summit Conference in Rio, the 1995 World Women Conference in Beijing and the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle. More generally, a number of major trends provide the context for both the emergence of TNs and their study: 1) increasing global integration; 2) an increase in "transnational" problems; 3) converging and diffusing values (such as human rights and consumerism); 4) proliferating transnational institutions; and 5) the rise of information communication technology (Kriesberg 1997; Rucht 1999). The result is a large and rather amorphous body of social science literature that explores various aspects of TNs from a diverse range of analytical perspectives. The conceptual and methodological ?diversity? of TN research simultaneously enriches, complicates and divides the field. Efforts to take stock of what has been said and learned up to now about social networks are warranted and can provide insight into future research on TNs. As such, this paper realizes an interdisciplinary exploration of current thinking on TNs. First, we identify a specific sub-set of recent sociological and political science scholarship from transnationalism studies, migration studies, global civil society (GCS) and transnational social movements (TSM) studies. Then, rather than simply pointing out lines of agreement and debate, we highlight the range of conceptual, theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of TNs. To that end, a version of the ?grounded theory? approach was employed to identify how the idea of networks is invoked in the selected literature. We combed through each article to locate the author?s main conceptual frame for researching and analyzing TNs; the conceptual frames were then grouped into analytical categories. In sum, we found that networks are referred to in the following ways: 1) something that has effects on or connects to a node, 2) a set of linkages and disconnections, 3) a pattern or quantity of flows, 4) a structure, 5) a type of space, and 6) a challenge to existing concepts and methodological approaches. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]