Are we talking about pipes or water?

A few days ago I was on the phone with a colleague who did a series of Net-Maps with groups of African farmers, asking them where they get their information about improving their farming practice. When we talked about the data she collected, we realized that what her farmers had mapped was like the pipe [...]

Small town NetMapping: Can informal relationships be captured within institutional analysis? (guest post by Jody Harris)

My PhD research in Zambia is an evaluation of an NGO program that aims in part to align and coordinate certain activities within the Ministries of Agriculture and Health for improved nutrition outcomes (both food and health being essential elements of good nutritional status, of course!). A key piece of information, then, is how are [...]

Do you doodle?

Are you like me, when you try to explain something complicated (or exciting) to others, you quickly grab pen and paper and draw some weird picture or graph that makes absolute sense to you, helps you structure your thoughts and maybe (or not) helps the other person understand what you are trying to say? The [...]

Shadow Elite

Interesting and scary book by Janine R. Wedel. The full title is: Shadow Elite: How the World’s New Power Brokers Undermine Democracy, Government, and the Free Market. She looks at the revolving door through which a small number of powerful individuals move between jobs in government, as lobbyists and industry and back to government positions, [...]