Using Networks to Explore Narratives

How Network Analysis can help us to study the emergence of Forced Displacement as a National Trauma in Colombia?

Social network data refers to measurements of relations between actors. If we consider narratives as a sequence of actions by which actors are linked to one another, we can suggest that narrative texts are a source of network data. 

By applying network analysis to newspaper stories about forced displacement in Colombia, in this blog post.  Here I'm going to show the usefulness of this approach by focusing on sociometric notation and graph representation. Those interested in the emergence of forced displacement as a national trauma in Colombia will find this as an useful blog post

Exploring Social Media Networks

How Network Analysis can make us more innovative in the study of collective traumas?

I’ve been exploring social networks, semantic networks, networks of one form or another in different contexts. Networks are everywhere! But, how can an understanding of networks help us to become more innovative in the study of collective traumas? In this blog post I want to explore how a deeper understanding of networks helps to identify communities online extending collective traumas.

A network map of 110 Twitter users talking about and sharing ChevronToxico links

Data Mining Network Graphs

The american discourse on the Chevron-Texaco case in Ecuador: A Network Approach

How do you visualize a discourse?  In this blog post I give a quick preview of the way I use a network graph for visualizing the topic model that uncovers the topics underlying the american discourse about the Chevron-Texaco case in Ecuador. With LDA, I found 55 topics related to 14 discursive categories: corruption, corporate power, responsability, environmental crisis, indigenous communities, solidarity, economy, politics, security, conflict, justice, sovereignty, imperialism and mass media. With a network graph, this discourse looks as follows: 

Visualizing Networks

The Twitter Network of an Anti-Mining NGO 

I've been exploring strategies for visualizing the networks of anti-mining NGOs.¿Who are they connected to? Since this issue is probably too big for one blog post, I might give a quick preview of how these networks look like by visualizing the twitter network of actors followed by an Anti-Mining NGO in Colombia with NodeXL. NGOs, activists, mass media, social and indigenous movements, environmental coalitions, stakeholders, policy makers, scholars, research centers, regional comissions and labor unions seem to be the actors frequently followed in this case.

Exploring Semantic Networks

Networks in times of social crisis: The Coca-Cola case in Colombia 

The sociologist Ronald S. Burt (1975) outlined a methodology for studying a society in transition as reflected in its mass media. He was concerned with the transition of the United States from a person oriented society in the 19th century to a corporate society during the 20th century and his strategy was to identify the networks of associations among categories of actors by using past issues of The New York Times. In this blog post I'm exploring how a variant of Burt’s method might be applied to study the transition of a society in times of crisis using a combination of words parsing and social network analysis. 

CDKN Supports a network intervention

"Learning lessons from Manatí’s resilient women"

A project in Colombia is investigating how women were affected by devastating floods in 2010 and 2011. The hope is to pass on knowledge about how they reacted and coped, to help other communities prepare for similar disasters. By Beatrice Mosello (CDKN’s Project Officer), Samir Eljagh and Eliana Sanandres Campis (Researchers at Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, Colombia). You can find more information HERE.

An Experience of Network Intervention

Disaster conditions have a psychosocial impact that alters all the systems to which an individual belongs. Damage to the population affects lives, agricultural and industrial production, housing and services and destabilizes the pre-established conditions of community well being. This alters social networks and social structure in general, generates an over-demand for systems and communities and overwhelms their capacity to respond to individuals in a functional manner.TO address this reality, an experience of Network Intervention was developed between 2012 and 2013 to recuperate or reconfigure the networks affected by natural disasters in Manatí-Colombia. The implementation of this intervention reconfigured support networks, supported quicker psychological adaptation and promoted resilience in the communities affected by the disaster. See the complete information HERE

Personal Networks in Disaster Contexts

Personal Networks in Disaster Contexts. The case of Colombia, 2010-2011

An individual is defined, in part, by his or her connections to others. When an individual loses such connections, he or she experiences a displacement of personhood and enters in a geographical, political and social space of redefinition. In this sense, victims of natural disasters often lose the connections they had created within their native social system and face the daunting need to re-establish a life, a task that requires them to rebuild the personal networks that have been fractured by the disaster. In this blog post I want to explore how a network analysis help us to understand such a reality.