|
The AAAS Science and Human Rights Program is investigating the application
of network analysis and network mapping to human rights problems. Network analysis offers a broad array of options for analyzing relational data
to measure and characterize patterns of relationships, for example:
- Assessing communications patterns among non-governmental organizations working
on an issue or crisis area;
- Extracting hidden relationships such as command structures from large sets
of primary source documents like the US National Security Archives and victim
reports; and
- Tracking and optimizing the spread of practices and innovations through
communities.
Network mapping is a technique for graphically
representing complex data and relationships, including social structures
and networks, and the links between and among organizations and other actors.
We have identified several uses of this technique, including:
- Evaluating local power structures to facilitate interventions by international
aid organizations;
- Describing and communicating knowledge about complicated power relations
among issue stakeholders; and
- Creating tangible representations of large and complicated collections of
information, such as data on flows of campaign contributions, legal citations,
or the individual and institutional relationships involved in torture.
Our goal is to determine how the concepts and techniques of network and network
mapping can best be disseminated to the human rights community, and how they
may be utilized at all levels, from grassroots organizations in the field, to
policy research and implementation.
Let us hear from you: We welcome
your comments, suggestions, and ideas. Also, if you have examples of situations
in which network mapping has been used successfully for human rights purposes,
or suggestions for situations in which you think network mapping might be useful,
please let us know.
(site updated 02/11/2008)
| 
