Following several strands of sociological theory (most importantly: relational sociology around Harrison White), Jan Fuhse regards social structures as composed of social networks which are interwoven with meaning. Precisely, according to his approach, networks exist as relational expectations emerging, stabilizing, and changing over the course of communicative events. Consequently, network research has to focus on both the symbolic and the communicative-dynamic side of social networks.

Previously, he focused on the role of social networks in the constitution and reproduction of social inequality, especially with regard to interethnic relations. In his doctorate, Fuhse applied relational sociology to the integration of Italian migrants in Germany. He showed with multivariate statistical analyses that practical ethnicity and acculturation of migrants depend with the ethnic composition of their personal networks.

More recently, Fuhse worked on methods to study networks in discourse. Specifically, he used a mix of qualitative interpretation of communicative events and formal quantitative analysis to reconstruct constellations in political discourse both in contemporary Germany and in the Weimar Republic. This includes the use of computational social science methods, especially quantitative text analysis. Other fields of his work, past and current, include the sociology of the political field, socio-cultural networks in mass-media communication and on the internet, and the role of theory in the social sciences.

Among his recent publication we underline:

"Networks from culture: Mechanisms of tie-formation follow institutionalized rules in social fields" (with Neha Gondal), Social Networks 77 (2024), 43-54.

"Relational Sociology: Networks, Culture, and Interaction" (with Ann Mische) in: John McLevey / John Scott / Peter Carrington (eds.): The Sage Handbook of Social Network Analysis, 2nd Edition, London: Sage 2023, 55-71.

"Stitching the Social World: The Processing of Multiple Social Structures in Communication", Socius 9 (2023).

"Analyzing networks in communication: a mixed methods study of a political debate", Quality & Quantity 57 (2023), 1207-1230.

"How can theories represent social phenomena?", Sociological Theory 40/2 (2022), 99–123.

Social Networks of Meaning and Communication, New York: Oxford University Press 2022.