Tracing Power And Influence In Networks Net Map As A Tool For Research And Strategic Network Planning

Networks are everywhere, and understanding how power and influence flow through them is vital for success in today's interconnected world. In this groundbreaking book, Schiffer and Waale introduce readers to the Net-Map tool and provide a step-by-step guide for using it to map out networks and identify key players. Packed with real-world examples and actionable insights, this book is a must-read for researchers, strategists, and anyone looking to gain a competitive edge. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Managers of multinational organizations are struggling to win the strategic competition for the hearts and minds of external stakeholders. These stakeholders differ fundamentally in their worldview, their understanding of the market economy and their aspirations and fears for the future. Their collective opinions of managers and corporations will shape the competitive landscape of the global economy and have serious consequences for businesses that fail to meet their expectations. This important new book argues that the strategic management of relationships with external stakeholders – what the author calls "Corporate Diplomacy" – is not just canny PR, but creates real and lasting business value.Using a mix of colourful examples, practically relevant tools and considered perspectives, the book hones in on a fundamental challenge that managers of multinational corporations face as they strive to compete in the 21st century. As falling communication costs shrink, the distance between external stakeholders and shareholder value is increasingly created and protected through a strategic integration of the external stakeholder facing functions. These include government affairs, stakeholder relations, sustainability, enterprise risk management, community relations and corporate communications. Through such integration, the place where business, politics and society intersect need not be a source of nasty surprises or unexpected expenses. Most of the firms profiled in the book are now at the frontier of corporate diplomacy. But they didn’t start there. Many of them were motivated by past failings. They fell into conflicts with critical stakeholders – politicians, communities, NGO staffers, or activists – and they suffered. They experienced delays or disruptions to their operations, higher costs, angry customers, or thwarted attempts at expansion. Eventually, the managers of these companies developed smarter strategies for stakeholder engagement. They became corporate diplomats. The book draws on their experiences to take the reader to the forefront of stakeholder engagement and to highlight the six elements of corprate diplomacy.

Pakistan’s water management is at a critical watershed. The world’s seventh-most populous country faces serious challenges that will require improvements in both the "hardware" and "software" of agricultural water management. Water shortages are growing rapidly as a result of growing demand across all water-using sectors. Rapid population growth, from 175 million people in 2010 to an estimated 236 million by 2030 and 280 million by 2050, and international food-price spikes create pressure to increase agricultural production of staples; but demand for cash crops is also growing rapidly, including for cotton, fruit trees and tobacco, to raise rural incomes and generate rural employment to absorb the relatively young, rapidly growing rural population. Water management is also increasingly affected by climate change – including an increased number of flood and drought events – and growing energy shortages, which affect how water is being sourced and used. Last but not least, Pakistan’s political situation is fragile, which has reduced incentives to invest in enhanced agricultural water (and other) technologies. How Pakistan addresses these challenges will be decisive for its population’s future water and food security, for economic growth, and for environmental sustainability. It will also affect water and food outcomes globally, due to the interconnectedness of global food trade. This book was published as a special issue of Water International.

Irrigated agriculture can support food and nutrition security, increase rural employment and incomes and can act as a buffer against growing climate variability and change. However, irrigation development has been slow in Africa south of the Sahara and Ghana is no exception. Out of a total potential irrigated area of close to 2 million ha, less than 20,000 ha large-scale irrigation and less than 200,000 ha of small-scale irrigation have been developed; but the latter is only an estimate. To identify entry points for accelerating small-scale irrigation development in Ghana, a national and a regional stakeholder Net-Map workshop were held in Accra and Tamale, respectively. The workshops suggest that a wide variety of actors from government, the private sector, international organizations and funders, research organizations and NGOs are involved in the diffusion of small-scale irrigation technologies. However, there are important differences between actors perceived to be key at the national and at the regional levels in northern Ghana. At the national level, diffusion of small-scale irrigation technologies is considered to be largely influenced by the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority together with a series of private sector actors focused on importation, distribution and financing of technologies. Farmers are considered to have no influence over the diffusion of small-scale irrigation, suggesting that small-scale irrigation is largely considered a supply-driven process. In northern Ghana, on the other hand, farmers are considered to be key influencers, although participants noted that much of this was potential influence, together with a larger and more diversified set of government stakeholders that are seen as regulators and possibly gatekeepers. For irrigation diffusion to successfully move from importation to distribution to benefiting smallholder farmers, all of these actors have to come together to better understand farmers’ needs and challenges. A multi-stakeholder platform could help to increase communication between farmers as the ultimate beneficiaries of small-scale irrigation technologies and the many other actors interested in supporting this process.

Small-scale irrigation has significant potential to increase crop productivity in Mali, in particular given growing climate change impacts on the country and region. While large-scale development is substantial, small, private irrigation remains limited, affecting food and particularly nutrition security as small-scale technologies are more likely to be used for high-value vegetable crops. To better understand the challenges and opportunities in the diffusion of small-scale irrigation technologies, two workshops were organized in 2021 at the national and regional levels, respectively, to consider national and local factors supporting the diffusion of small-scale irrigation technologies. Key constraints identified were a lack of linkages between intermediary organizations in the small-scale irrigation diffusion process, such as commodity associations, financial institutions and technology vendors with government agencies in charge of irrigation, limiting the sharing of consistent and effective information across entities; the lack of a clear policy framework and long-term guidance for private individual irrigation; an associated lack of targeted technology development including limited adaptation to different local contexts, missing financial products linked to irrigation technology, and inadequate capacity building of farmers through extension services and demonstration sites. Workshop participants suggested a dedicated platform for more effective information exchange across the key actors identified in the events, improved capacity building on private irrigation, and a supportive policy and financial environment to ensure growth and sustainability of small-scale irrigation development in the country.

This two-volume book describes a flexible and adaptive system-based methodology and associated guidelines for the management and allocation of community-based WELF resources. Over the next 50 years, rapid population, urbanization, and economic growth worldwide will create unprecedented demands for water, energy, land, and food (WELF) resources. The discussion on how to meet human needs for WELF resources and how to guarantee their respective securities has changed over time from looking at all four sectors in isolation to understanding their interdependency through the so-called WELF nexus. The approach presented in this book responds to the overall agreement in the WELF nexus literature that the management and allocation of WELF resources at the community level need to be examined in a more systemic, multidisciplinary, participatory, and practical manner while seeking to increase synergies and reduce trade-offs. This book was written to explore the value proposition of that approach. This two-volume book describes a flexible and adaptive system-based methodology and associated guidelines for the management and allocation of community-based WELF resources. Volume 1 focuses on defining the landscape in which the nexus operates and outlines the proposed methodology. Volume 2 explores the quantitative and qualitative modeling of the nexus and landscape using system modeling tools including system dynamics. It presents a road map for the formulation, simulation, selection, and ranking of possible intervention plans. The proposed methodology is designed to serve as a guide for different groups involved in the science and policy decision aspects of the WELF nexus within the context of community development. The methodology focuses mostly on WELF-related issues in small-scale and low-income communities where securing resources is critical to their short- and long-term livelihood and development.