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经建立，但要么集中在未经请求的个人日记的叙述内容上，要么集中在作为研究工具的请求使用上。迄今为止，约会日记很少受到关注。使用定量方法提供了一种手段，首次以系统的方式利用这些来源提供的大量数据。这将创造一种新颖的个人传记形式，或当个人日记连接在一起时的集体传记。这种方法将应用于三个说明性案例：玛格丽特撒切尔的任命日记（1962- 1990年），哈罗德·威尔逊（涵盖1958-60年和1966-88年）和1986-93年贸易和工业部部长和常务秘书的私人办公室日记。前两个案例提供了一长串的日记，让人们清楚地了解他们在担任总理和之后的职业发展。第三个案例，其中包括主杨，弗朗西斯莫德，约翰雷德伍德，尼尔汉密尔顿和艾伦克拉克，提供了一套一致的日记，为一组个人允许一个更集体的形式传记的部门。这也可以与玛格丽特·撒切尔的记录联系起来，并将说明政府内部以及与更广泛的社会，特别是与企业的政治关系的性质。除了创造一种新颖的传记形式外，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、首相的角色、部长们的日常生活以及他们运作的网络的辩论提供信息。从这些个案的工作经验中，有可能为其他有兴趣利用这一以前未使用过的资源的社会科学家制定一个模板。该项目是及时的，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，即贸易与工业部部长的案例，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“非数字”记录（以数字形式从源头创建的记录）的深入了解。保存和使用这些天生的数字记录是档案学家和历史学家目前面临的一个关键问题，因此对这些记录的分析可以为这个主题和解决这个问题的社区提供信息和参与。鉴于电子日记在工作场所和个人中的传播，它还将为这些记录的分析提供及时的见解。为此，与档案管理员，特别是国家档案馆的档案管理员建立了联系，事实上，该项目设想的更广泛的影响之一是探索使用电子任命日记作为了解职业发展和与个人和组织业绩有关的关系网络的资源的潜力。项目小组将与特许人事发展研究所协商，探讨是否可能开发一种研究工具，供个人和组织用于其任命日记。这个项目，汇集了历史学家谁是一个公认的专家，在使用当代档案资源与同样公认的定量社会网络分析专家，将改变目前在很大程度上被忽视的信息来源成为一个关键的研究工具，了解个人的职业发展和组织内的网络。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。它将为目前关于数字记录工作的讨论提供信息，并评估其在全社会更广泛应用的潜力。

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.