Networking with a network: the Liverpool African Committee 1750-1810

Historians are increasingly using networks as an analytical framework. However, recent research has stressed the inherent problems with networks, including networking institutions. We therefore have to consider why and in what ways actors do, or did, engage with networks. This paper posits a novel i...

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Main Authors: Haggerty, John, Haggerty, Sheryllynne
Format: Article
Published: Cambridge University Press 2017
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37736/
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author Haggerty, John
Haggerty, Sheryllynne
author_facet Haggerty, John
Haggerty, Sheryllynne
author_sort Haggerty, John
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Historians are increasingly using networks as an analytical framework. However, recent research has stressed the inherent problems with networks, including networking institutions. We therefore have to consider why and in what ways actors do, or did, engage with networks. This paper posits a novel interdisciplinary methodology by bringing together regression analysis, visual analytics and history to analyse actors' relationships with an institution, rather than with one another. This methodology, illustrated by the case study of the Liverpool African Committee, 1750-1810, demonstrates that actors' relationships with an institution may be affective or instrumental, reflecting different relationships with, and uses of, the network. Moreover, actors' relationships with an institution are not static and change over time. The methodology and case study presented in this paper suggest a reassesment of our understanding of metropolitan business networking institutions to reflect the complexity of their use.
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spelling nottingham-377362020-05-04T19:55:45Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37736/ Networking with a network: the Liverpool African Committee 1750-1810 Haggerty, John Haggerty, Sheryllynne Historians are increasingly using networks as an analytical framework. However, recent research has stressed the inherent problems with networks, including networking institutions. We therefore have to consider why and in what ways actors do, or did, engage with networks. This paper posits a novel interdisciplinary methodology by bringing together regression analysis, visual analytics and history to analyse actors' relationships with an institution, rather than with one another. This methodology, illustrated by the case study of the Liverpool African Committee, 1750-1810, demonstrates that actors' relationships with an institution may be affective or instrumental, reflecting different relationships with, and uses of, the network. Moreover, actors' relationships with an institution are not static and change over time. The methodology and case study presented in this paper suggest a reassesment of our understanding of metropolitan business networking institutions to reflect the complexity of their use. Cambridge University Press 2017-09 Article PeerReviewed Haggerty, John and Haggerty, Sheryllynne (2017) Networking with a network: the Liverpool African Committee 1750-1810. Enterprise and Society, 18 (3). pp. 566-590. ISSN 1467-2235 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/enterprise-and-society/article/networking-with-a-network-the-liverpool-african-committee-17501810/36F7CB2FA9BFCD8AA106D3EE494CEA4D doi:10.1017/eso.2016.64 doi:10.1017/eso.2016.64
spellingShingle Haggerty, John
Haggerty, Sheryllynne
Networking with a network: the Liverpool African Committee 1750-1810
title Networking with a network: the Liverpool African Committee 1750-1810
title_full Networking with a network: the Liverpool African Committee 1750-1810
title_fullStr Networking with a network: the Liverpool African Committee 1750-1810
title_full_unstemmed Networking with a network: the Liverpool African Committee 1750-1810
title_short Networking with a network: the Liverpool African Committee 1750-1810
title_sort networking with a network: the liverpool african committee 1750-1810
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37736/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37736/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/37736/