Description
This paper explores social network analysis (SNA) as a means for rethinking the nature of INGO-government relations in INGO countries of origin. Allegations of clandestine state influence on INGO practices and hidden political agendas are standard tropes in local and global debates surrounding the activities of international NGOs in sovereign states. While existing research on state-INGO relationships has scrutinised institutional patterns of cooperation and conflict, the present paper reviews methodological and conceptual innovations in social network analysis to trace and conceptualise the significance of informal interpersonal ties between state and non-state actors.
Owing to its highly interdisciplinary roots, social network analysis is variously treated as a toolkit or a social theory its own right. Accordingly, the paper reviews standard methods and concepts utilised in social network analysis across the social sciences. Borrowing the notion of interlocking directorates, I develop a new approach that combines multiple data sets on interpersonal and interorganisational ties for assessing the patterned relationships and social distance between governmental and non-governmental organisations in the British overseas development and aid sector. I thereby contribute to methodological innovation and the largely institutional literature on the interfaces between state-based and non-state forms of power in global governance and their implications for INGO independence.
