Quantitative network analysis of appointment diaries

关于日记的研究，虽然在社会科学和人文科学中已有很长的历史，但要么集中在个人日记的叙述内容上，要么集中在主动将其用作研究工具。到目前为止，约会日记几乎没有受到关注。使用定量方法第一次提供了一种以系统方式利用这些来源中可获得的大量数据的手段。这将创造一种新的个人传记形式，或当个人日记联系在一起时的集体传记。这种方法将应用于三个说明性案例：玛格丽特·撒切尔(Margaret Thatcher)的任命日记(涵盖1962-90年)、哈罗德·威尔逊(Harold Wilson)的任命日记(涵盖1958-60年和1966-88年)以及1986年至1993年贸易和工业部(DTI)部长和常任秘书的私人办公室日记。前两个案例提供了一长串日记，使人们能够清楚地了解他们在成为首相的道路上以及之后的职业发展。第三个案例包括杨勋爵、弗朗西斯·莫德、约翰·雷德伍德、尼尔·汉密尔顿和艾伦·克拉克，他们为一群人提供了一套一致的日记，从而使司法部的传记形式更具集体性。这也可以与玛格丽特·撒切尔夫人的记录联系在一起，并将说明政府内部以及与更广泛的社会，特别是与商业的政治关系的性质。除了创造一种新的传记形式外，这项研究还将从一个独特的角度为一系列关于撒切尔政府、首相角色、部长们的日常生活以及他们所处的网络的辩论提供信息。从处理这些个案的经验来看，将有可能为其他有兴趣利用这一以前未用过的来源的社会科学家制定一个模板。这个项目是及时的，因为随着电子日记的广泛使用，对这类信息的分析变得更加直接。第三个案例，DTI部长的案例之所以被选中，部分原因是这些记录是作为电子日记系统的早期形式创建的。这将提供对“天生数字”记录(那些从起源以数字形式创建的记录)的洞察。保存和使用这种与生俱来的数字记录是目前档案学家和历史学家面临的一个关键问题，因此对这些记录的分析可以使这一主题和社区参与到这一主题中来。鉴于电子日记在工作场所和个人中的传播，它还将为分析这类记录提供及时的见解。为此，已经与档案管理员建立了联系，特别是在国家档案馆。实际上，该项目设想的更广泛的影响之一是探索利用电子预约日记作为了解与个人和组织业绩有关的职业发展和关系网络的资源的潜力。该项目小组将与特许人事发展学会协商，研究开发一种研究工具的可能性，供个人和组织应用于他们的聘任日程表。这个项目汇集了一位在使用当代档案资源方面是公认的专家的历史学家和一位同样公认的量化社会网络分析专家，将把目前基本上被忽视的信息来源转变为了解个人职业发展和组织内网络的关键研究工具。它将开辟一个新的研究领域，具有跨社会科学和人文科学的潜在应用。它将通报目前关于使用数字记录的讨论情况，并对其在全社会更广泛应用的潜力进行评估。

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.