ABSTRACT
In previous chapters, we have seen that relations between people matter for how individuals and groups of people can access and benefit in different ways from natural resources. One way of looking at relations is to view them as institutions, or ‘rules of the game’, as discussed in Chapters 1 and 3. Social network analysis provides an alternative approach to examining relations between people within particular settings. This chapter provides an introduction to social network analysis and examines case studies of the application of the approach to natural resource settings in developing countries to provide illustrations of how it can be used and the types of questions that can be answered. The chapter introduces some of the key terms, approaches and measures within social network analysis, but specialist textbooks should be consulted if readers wish to use this methodology. There are many available, some of which are listed in the references for this chapter. In addition, specific software, such as UCINET, is available to facilitate social network analysis.
