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Net-Map Toolbox

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Jennifer Hauck writes: Networks in everyday lifeDecember 2

A very good example that science does not always have to be rather boring is provided by Linton C. Freeman. The author (who wrote an excellent overview of “The Development of Social Network Analysis: A Study in the Sociology of Science in 2004) assembles 24 comics that focus on networks. Right-click here and save a pdf-file with some figures that may help to understand intuitively, what some network scientists like to pack into complicated, never ending sentences and papers.

Have fun!

      

Webfind: Kids give backNovember 3

Now this is really worth a look. School kids growing food for low income groups in Los Angeles, world class chefs teaching children and others how to cook fast and cheap and well etc. Just read for yourself, what the Food Bank Project (http://kidsgiveback.wordpress.com/) is all about.

      

Change of perspectiveNovember 3

If I talk to people in different African countries, both the locals and those foreigners working with them, there is one notion that I encounter all over the place: It is basically the women who keep the place going, feed the families, are to be trusted with loans etc. In Ghana even the young Ghanaian men I worked with generally had a lot of praise for their mothers and very little for their fathers.

Today at breakfast I had an interesting discussion with a colleague who opened my eyes to a possible cultural and historical explanation that goes beyond the boring ideological statement that women are somehow better people. In many pre-colonial societies in Africa (and elsewhere, for that matter) the role of the man was closely linked to the forest, going out in the wild, risking their lifes to hunt and bring back food for the family. Women were much more household bound, involved in agricultural activities, if that was part of the specific culture. In many colonies, the colonial powers decided that the forests were to be state propperty and thus made the male contribution to household lifelihood an illegal activity. At the same time, women continued cultivating the land and - in many cases - didn’t encourage men to encroach on this domain.

So, my friend says, what are the men supposed to do, who didn’t only get food but also recognition and dignity through their hunting activities? Denying them access to the forest was like making them amputees,

Julius Nyangaga about using SNA to understand innovation systemsOctober 24

Dr Eva Schiffer recently took us (a group of researchers from the International Livestock Research Institute, ILRI) through an introductory session to Social Network Analysis - the concept, the methodologies, its application.  Most of us were from the innovation side of the research world where qualitative constructs and processes in systems are easily appreciated. But deep inside (at least for me, and I am sure for most participants) we were anxiously looking for what promised to deliver quantitative bridges through which we could explaining meanings to number-minded die-hards.

The course (and the tools) did not disappoint.  All participants were ecstatic about the course, because through SNA we could now analyse systems from a ‘connections’  point of view, especially when considering actors (individuals, groups, organizations, or institutions) and their possible relationships (e.g. information flow, product or service delivery, income payments, influence, etc.).  The use of the software programs (VisuaLyzer and UCINet) to graphically display these actor-relationships was invaluable, but even more powerful was quantification of the patterns of relationships. Properties such as size, density and degrees of connectivity, centres of network or actor power and influence, subgroup types and clique or cluster analysis, etc. could be presented in numbers, charts and models

However, when considering how we want to communicate with our professional

How does a research assistant become director general?October 22

This was one question that my participants at the ILRI Net-Map workshop chose to map out in a group activity to learn how the method works. I must admit, they didn’t find a simple answer in their one hour speed mapping session. Maybe because we were pressed for time and I didn’t allow them to finish their discussion?

But even if none of the participants will end up on their director general’s chair within the next ten years, I think that it is very useful for members of one organization, who have different levels of experience and have climbed different steps on the career ladder, to discuss amongst themselves what you have to do to be successful in this organization and how you can understand and use the existing networks to your own benefit. That’s where network mapping can become a tool of institutional learning and knowledge sharing.

And, after speculating from our low positions how to get to the top of the hill, it would be great to be able to sit down with someone who has climbed it successfully and ask: “So, who were all the individuals and organizations who supported (or impeded) you on your way to the top? How did/do you link to them? Who was how influential in helping you to get to where you are now?”