Quantitative network analysis of appointment diaries

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Research on diaries, while well-established across the social sciences and humanities, has either focussed on the narrative content of unsolicited personal diaries, or on their solicited use as a research tool. Appointment diaries have received little attention to date. Using quantitative methods provides a means of exploiting the mass of data available in such sources in a systematic way for the first time. This will create a novel form of individual biography, or collective biography when the individual diaries are linked together.This approach will be applied to three illustrative cases: the appointment diaries of Margaret Thatcher (covering 1962-90), those of Harold Wilson (covering 1958-60 and 1966-88) and the private office diaries of ministers and permanent secretaries in the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) 1986-93. The first two cases provide long series of diaries which allow a clear understanding of career development on their paths to being Prime Minister and thereafter. The third case, which includes Lord Young, Francis Maude, John Redwood, Neil Hamilton and Alan Clark, provides a consistent set of diaries for a group of individuals allowing a more collective form of biography of the department. This can also be linked to the records of Margaret Thatcher and will illustrate the nature of political relationships within the government and with wider society, in particular, with business. In addition to creating a novel form of biography, the research will inform a range of debates about the Thatcher governments, the role of Prime Minister, the everyday life of ministers and the networks in which they operate from a unique perspective.From the experience of working with these individual cases it will be possible to draw up a template for other social scientists interested in exploiting this previously unused source. The project is timely because with the now widespread use of electronic diaries analysis of this type of information has become much more straightforward. The third case, that of the DTI ministers has been selected in part because these records were created as an early form of electronic diary system. This will provide insights into 'born-digital' records (those created from origin in digital form). The preservation and use of such born digital records is a key issue facing archivists and historians at the moment and so analysis of these records can inform and engage with this subject and the community addressing it. It will also provide timely insights into the analysis of such records given the spread of electronic diaries in the workplace and for the individual. To this end, links have been established with archivists, notably at the National Archives.Indeed, one of the wider impacts envisaged by the project is to explore the potential for the use of electronic appointment diaries as a resource for understanding career development and networks of relationships relevant to individual and organisational performance. In consultation with the Chartered Institute for Personnel Development the project team will address the possible development of a research tool which could be applied by individuals and organisations to their appointment diaries. This project, bringing together an historian who is a recognised expert in the use of contemporary archival sources with a similarly recognised quantitative social network analysis expert, will transform a source of information presently largely ignored into a key research tool for understanding individuals' career development and the networks within organisations. It will open up a new research field with potential applications across the social sciences and humanities. It will inform the current discussions on working with digital records and provide an evaluation of the potential for its application more widely across society.