African Networks Lab

Formal approaches that map and model social structure – known as Social Network Analysis or SNA – have spread across academic disciplines.

Thus far, however, the vast majority of these studies have been conducted in North America and Western Europe. In the rest of the world, where relational issues are just as important, the use of SNA to understand social structures is in its early stages.

In Africa, especially, very little is known of the ties that bind individual, groups and organizations, how they serve as channels for flows of material and information flows, and how they influence social, economic and political outcomes.

Below is a list of (relatively) recent papers that have used SNA to formally map and model social structures in Sub-Saharan Africa. This list is by no means comprehensive, so feel free to contact us if we missed anything (last update:  July 2023). We have only listed papers that explicitly adopt a formal approach to networks (SNA).

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General

• Marks, Z., Stys P. 2019. Social network research in Africa. African Affairs 118(471): 375–391.

Trade, entrepreneurship and manufacturing activities

• Akoten, J.E., Otsuka, K. 2007. From tailors to mini‑manufacturers: The role of traders in the performance of garment enterprises in Kenya. Journal of African Economies 16(4): 564–595.
• Barr, A. 2002. The functional diversity and spillover effects of social capital. Journal of African Economies 11(1): 90–113.
• Berrou, J.‑P., Combarnous, F. 2011. Testing Lin’s social capital theory in an informal African urban economy. The Journal of Development Studies 47(8): 1216–1240
• Bähre, 2012. The janus face of insurance in South Africa: from costs to risk, from networks to bureaucracies. Africa 82(1): 150–167.
• Brønd, F. (2018). Territory and trade networks in the small-scale oil-palm industry in rural Ghana. Applied Geography 100: 90-100.
• Burns, J., Godlonton, S., Keswell, M. 2010. Social networks, employment and worker discouragement: Evidence from South Africa. Labour Economics 17(2): 336–344.
• Caria, A.S., Hassen, I.W. 2013. The formation of job referral networks: Experimental evidence from urban Ethiopia. Washington, D.C, IFPRI Discussion Paper 1282.
• Chipika, S., Wilson, G. 2006. Enabling technological learning among light engineering SMEs in Zimbabwe through networking. Technovation 26(8): 969–979.
• Fafchamps, M. 2001. Networks, communities, and markets in Sub-Saharan Africa: Implications for firm growth and investment. Journal of African Economies 10(2): 109–142.
• Fafchamps, M. 2006. Development and social capital. Journal of Development Studies 42(7): 1180–1198.
• Fafchamps, M., Minten, B. 1999. Relationships and traders in Madagascar. Journal of Development Studies 35(6): 1–35.
• Fafchamps, M, Minten, B. 2002. Returns to social network capital among traders. Oxford Economic Papers 54: 173–206.
• Grimm, M., Gubert, F., Koriko, O., Lay, J., & Nordman, C. J. 2013. Kinship ties and entrepreneurship in Western Africa. Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship 26(2): 125-150.
• Hofmeyr, A. 2010. Social networks and ethnic niches: an econometric analysis of the manufacturing sector in South Africa. South African Journal of Economics 78: 107–130.
• Ishiwata, A., Matouš, P., Todo, Y. 2014. Effects of business networks on firm growth in a cluster of micro‑enterprises: Evidence from rural Ethiopia. RIETI Discussion Paper 14.
• Kebede, G. F., Odella, F. 2014. The economic returns of network resources to the urban informal economy: evidence from street vendors in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. European Journal of Sustainable Development 3(3), 357–372.
• Kebede, G. F. (2018). Network Locations or Embedded Resources? The Effects of Entrepreneurs’ Social Networks on Informal Enterprise Performance in Ethiopia. Journal of the Knowledge Economy: 1-30.
• Kuépié, M., Tenikue, M., Walther, O. 2015. Social networks and small businesses performance in West African border regions. Oxford Development Studies 44(2): 202–219.
• Lyon, F. 2000. Trust, networks and norms: the creation of social capital in agricultural economies in Ghana. World Development 28(4): 663–681.
• Nordman, C.J, Pasquier-Doumer, L. 2015. Transitions in a West African labour market: The role of family networks. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics 54: 74–85.
• Rooks, G., A. Szirmaic, Sserwangab, A. 2014. Network structure and innovative performance of African entrepreneurs: The case of Uganda. Journal of African Economies 21(4): 609–636.
• Rooks, G., Klyver, J., Sserwanga, A. 2016. The context of social capital: A comparison of rural and urban entrepreneurs in Uganda. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 40(1): 111-130.
• Schöer, V., Rankin, N. Roberts, G. 2012. Accessing the first job in a slack labour market: Job matching in South Africa. Journal of International Development 26(1): 1–22.
• Solano, G., Rooks, G. 2018. Social capital of entrepreneurs in a developing country: The effect of gender on access to and requests for resources. Social Networks 54: 279-290.
• Trémolières M, Walther O. (eds) 2019. Women and Trade Networks in West Africa. Paris, OECD Publishing.
• Valerio, V., Walther, O., Eilittä, M., Cissé, B., Muneepeerakul, R., Kiker, G. 2020. Network analysis of regional livestock trade in West Africa. PLoS ONE 15(5): 1-15.
• Walther, O., Tenikue, M., Trémolières, M. 2019. Economic performance, gender and social networks in West African food systems. World Development 124: 1-14.
• Walther, O. 2015. Business, brokers and borders: The structure of West African trade networks. Journal of Development Studies 51(5): 603–620.
• Walther, O. 2014. Trade networks in West Africa: A social network approach. Journal of Modern African Studies 52(2): 179–203.
• Zhang, Q., Batinge, B. 2021. A social network analysis of the structure and evolution of intra‐African trade. African Development Review: 1-14.
• Zook, S. 2017. Subsistence urban markets and incountry remittances: A social network analysis of urban street vendors in Ghana and the transfer of resources to rural villages. Georgia State University, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation.

Agriculture, pastoralism, fisheries

• See Karen Garrett’s team at the University of Florida.
• Apicella, C., Marlowe, F., Fowler, J., Christakis, N. 2012. Social networks and cooperation in hunter-gatherers. Nature 481, 497–501.
• Bandiera, O., Rasul, I. 2006. Social networks and technology adoption in northern Mozambique. Economic Journal 116: 869– 902.
• Bodin, Ö., Crona, B., Thyresson, M., Golz, A.-L., Tengö, M. 2014. Conservation success as a function of good alignment of social and ecological structures and processes. Conservation Biology 28: 1371–1379.
• Bourne, M., Gassner, A., Makui, P., Muller, A., Muriuki, J. 2017. A network perspective filling a gap in assessment of agricultural advisory system performance. Journal of Rural Studies 50: 30–44.
• Caudella, M., Rotolob, T., Grimaca, M. 2015. Informal lending networks in rural Ethiopia. Social Networks 40: 34–42.
• Conley, T.G., Udry, C.R. 2010. Learning about a new technology: Pineapple in Ghana. American Economic Review 100(1): 35–69.
• von Gnechten, R., Wang, J., Konar, M., Baylis, K., Anderson, P., Giroux, S., … & Evans, T. (2020). A gravity model and network analysis of household food sharing in Zambia. Environmental Research Letters 15(11), 115010.
• Hauck, J., Youkhana, E. 2008. Claims and realities of community-based water resource management: A case study of rural fisheries in Ghana, in Nanang D.M, Nunifu T.K. (eds) Natural Resources in Ghana. Hauppauge, Nova Science: 143–163.
• Isaac, M.E., Matouš, P. 2017. Social network ties predict land use diversity and land use change: a case study in Ghana. Regional Environmental Change 17: 1823–1833.
• Isaac, M.E., Anglaaere, L.C.N., Akoto, D.S., Dawoe, E. 2014. Migrant farmers as information brokers: Agroecosystem management in the transition zone of Ghana. Ecology and Society 19(2): 56.
• Isaac, M.E. 2012. Agricultural information exchange and organizational ties: The effect of network topology on managing agrodiversity. Agricultural Systems 109: 9-15.
• Isaac, M.E, Erickson, B., Quashie-Sam, J., Timmer, V.R. 2007. Transfer of agroforestry practices and management techniques: Structure of informal advice networks. Ecology and Society 12(2): 32.
• Labeyrie V, Thomas M, Muthamia ZK, Leclerc C. 2016. Seed exchange networks, ethnicity, and sorghum diversity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113(1): 98-103.
• Mano, Y., Yamano, T., Suzuki, A. 2011. Local and personal networks in employment and the development of labor markets: Evidence from the cut flower industry in Ethiopia. World Development 39(10): 1760–1770.
• Matouš, P., Todo, Y., Mojo, D. 2013. Roles of extension and ethno-religious networks in acceptance of resource-conserving agriculture among Ethiopian farmers. International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability 11(4): 301–316.
• Mekonnen, D.A., Gerber, N., Matz, J.A. 2017. Gendered social networks, agricultural innovations, and farm productivity in Ethiopia. World Development 105: 321-335.
• Nyantakyi-Frimpong, H., Matouš, P., Isaac, M.E. 2019. Smallholder farmers’ social networks and resource-conserving agriculture in Ghana: a multicase comparison using exponential random graph models. Ecology and Society 24(1): 5.
• Spielman, D.J., Davis, K., Negash, M., Ayele, G. 2011. Rural innovation systems and networks: findings from a study of Ethiopian smallholders. Agriculture and Human Values 28: 195–212.
• Violon C, Thomas M, Garine E. 2016. Good year, bad year: changing strategies, changing networks? A two-year study on seed acquisition in northern Cameroon. Ecology and Society 21(2): 34.
• Wencélius J, Thomas M, Barbillon P, Garine E. 2016. Interhousehold variability and its effects on seed circulation networks: a case study from northern Cameroon. Ecology and Society 21(1): 44.

Politics, development and policy

• Bloom, E., Kummer, E., Reeves, M. 2006. Building Dynamic Local Service Provider Communities: A Value Chain Approach. Washington, D.C., USAID, Office of Private and Voluntary Cooperation (read).
• Bloom, E., Reeves, M., Sunseri, A., Nyhan-Jones, V. 2008. Strengthening networks: Using organizational network analysis to promote network effectiveness, scale, and accountability. World Bank Capacity Development Briefs 28.
• IRC 2016. Social Network Analysis Handbook. Connecting the Dots in Humanitarian Programs. International Rescue Committee, July (read).
• OECD/SWAC. 2017. Cross-border Co-operation and Policy Networks in West Africa. Paris, OECD Publishing (read).
• Osei, A. 2015. Elites and democracy in Ghana: A social network approach. African Affairs 114(457): 529–554.
• Rennkamp B, Haunss S, Wongsa K, Ortega A, Casamadrid E. 2017. Competing coalitions: The politics of renewable energy and fossil fuels in Mexico, South Africa and Thailand. Energy Research & Social Science 34: 214–223.
• Schiffer, E., Mustapha, A.Y., Mustaph, A.L. 2012. Planning, budgeting and disbursing funds for newborn survival in Katsina State, Nigeria – a Net-Map analysis. Washington, D.C., Net-Map Toolbox (read).
• Schiffer, E. 2012. Using Net‑Map to assess and improve agricultural innovation systems, in World Bank (ed.) Agricultural Innovation Systems: An Investment Sourcebook. Washington, D.C, The World Bank: 593–597.
• Schiffer, E., Harwich, F., Monge, M. 2010. Who has influence in multi stakeholder governance systems? Using the Net‑Map method to analyze social networking in watershed management in northern Ghana. IFPRI Discussion Paper 964.
• Stroh, A. 2018. Sustaining and jeopardising a credible arbiter: Judicial networks in Benin’s consolidating democracy. International Political Science Review (online).
• Walther, O., Renk, S. 2017. Can social network analysis inform African development policies? An application to food security, market analysis and gender. Dakar, World Food Program (read).
• Woldense, J. 2018. The ruler’s game of musical chairs: Shuffling during the reign of Ethiopia’s last emperor. Social Networks 52: 154–166.

Conflict, security, political violence

• Dorff, C., Gallop, M., Minhas, S. 2020. Networks of violence: Predicting conflict in Nigeria. Journal of Politics 82(2): 476-493.
• Dorff, C., Gallop, M., & Minhas, S. (2023). Network competition and civilian targeting during civil conflict. British Journal of Political Science, 53(2), 441-459.
• Glowacki, L., Isakov, A., Wrangham, R.W., McDermott, R., Fowler, J.H., Christakis, N.A. 2016. Formation of raiding parties for intergroup violence is mediated by social network structure. PNAS 11(43): 12114–12119.
• Kim, S., Liu, H., & Desmarais, B. 2023. Spatial modeling of dyadic geopolitical interactions between moving actors. Political Science Research and Methods, 11(3), 633-644.
• König, M. D., Rohner, D., Thoenig, M., & Zilibotti, F. (2017). Networks in conflict: Theory and evidence from the Great War of Africa. Econometrica, 85(4), 1093-1132.
• McDoom, O. 2014. Antisocial capital: A profile of Rwandan genocide perpetrators’ social networks. Journal of Conflict Resolution 58(5): 865–893.
• Prieto Curiel R, Walther O, O’Clery C. 2020. Uncovering the internal structure of Boko Haram through its mobility patterns. Applied Network Science 5(28): 1-23.
• Skillicorn D, Walther O, Zheng Q, Leuprecht C. 2018. Spatial and temporal diffusion of political violence in North and West Africa, in Walther O, Miles W. (eds). African Border Disorders. Abingdon, Routledge: 87-112.
• Stys, P., Verweijen, J., Muzuri, P., Muhindo, S., Vogel, C., Koskinen, J.H. 2020. Brokering between (not so) overt and (not so) covert networks in conflict zones. Global Crime 21(1): 74-110.
• Trémolières M, Walther O, Radil S. (eds) 2021. Conflict Networks in North and West Africa. Paris, OECD Publishing.
• Van Holt, T., Johnson, J.J., Brinkley, J.D., Carley, K.M., Caspersen, J. 2012. Structure of ethnic violence in Sudan: A semi-automated network analysis of online news (2003–2010). Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory 18: 340–355.
• Walther, O., Christopoulos, D. 2015. Islamic terrorism and the Malian rebellion. Terrorism and Political Violence 27(3): 497-519.
• Walther O, Tisseron A. 2015. Strange bedfellows: a network analysis of Mali’s northern conflict. The Broker, Dec 18 (read).
• Walther O, Leuprecht C, Skillicorn D. 2018. Networks and spatial patterns of extremist organizations in North and West Africa, in Walther O, Miles W. (eds). African Border Disorders. Abingdon, Routledge: 60-86.
• Walther O, Radil S, Russell D. 2021. Mapping the changing structure of conflict in North and West Africa. African Security, 14(3): 211-238.
• Walther, O., Prieto-Curiel, R., Padron, J., & Scheuer, J. (2023). Mapping the travel geography of the 9/11 network. The Professional Geographer, 1-15.

Health

• Adams, A.M., Madhavan, S., Simon, D. 2002. Women’s social networks and child survival in Mali. Social Science & Medicine 54: 165–178.
• Adams, A.M., Madhavan, S., Simon, D. 2006. Measuring social networks cross-culturally. Social Networks 28(4): 363-376.
• Alvergne, A., Gibson, M. A., Gurmu, E., & Mace, R. (2011). Social transmission and the spread of modern contraception in rural Ethiopia. PLoS One 6(7), e22515.
• Behrman, J. R., Kohler, H. P., Watkins, S. C. 2002. Social networks and changes in contraceptive use over time: Evidence from a longitudinal study in rural Kenya. Demography 39(4): 713-738.
• Blanchet, K., James, P. 2012. The role of social networks in the governance of health systems: The case of eye care systems in Ghana. Health Policy and Planning 28(2): 143-156.
• Hedquist, A., Jones, C. M., Mijumbi, R. M., Sobngwi-Tambekou, J., Parkhurst, J., Wenham, C. 2022. Mapping regional cooperation of state actors for health research systems in Africa: A social network analysis. PLOS Global Public Health, 2(10), e0001142.
• Helleringer, S., Kohler, H.-P. 2007. Sexual network structure and the spread of HIV in Africa: evidence from Likoma Island, Malawi. Aids 21(17): 2323-2332.
• Helleringer, S., Kohler, H.-P. 2005. Social networks, perceptions of risk, and changing attitudes towards HIV/AIDS: new evidence from a longitudinal study using fixed-effects analysis. Population Studies 59(3): 265-282.
• Kamya, C., Shearer, J., Asiimwe, G., Carnahan, E., Salisbury, N., Waiswa, P., Brinkerhoff, J., Hozumi, D. 2017. Evaluating global health partnerships: a case study of a Gavi HPV vaccine application process in Uganda. International Journal of Health Policy and Management 6(6): 327-328.
• Kohler, H. P., Behrman, J. R., Watkins, S. C. 2001. The density of social networks and fertility decisions: Evidence from South Nyanza District, Kenya. Demography 38(1): 43-58.
• Loutfi, D., Andersson, N., Law, S., Salsberg, J., Haggerty, J., Kgakole, L., & Cockcroft, A. 2019. Can social network analysis help to include marginalised young women in structural support programmes in Botswana? A mixed methods study. International Journal for Equity in Health 18(1).
• Montgomery, M. R., Kiros, G. E., Agyeman, D., Casterline, J. B., Aglobitse, P., & Hewett, P. C. (2001). Social networks and contraceptive dynamics in Southern Ghana. Policy Research Division Working Paper 153.
• Mulawa M, Yamanis T, Hill L, Balvanz P, Kajula L, Maman S. 2016. Evidence of social network influence on multiple HIV risk behaviors and normative beliefs among young Tanzanian men. Social Science and Medicine 15: 35-43.
• Shearer, J.C., Dion, M., Lavis, J.N. 2014. Exchanging and using research evidence in health policy networks: A statistical network analysis. Implementation Science 9(1): 126.
• Shearer, J.C. 2015. Policy entrepreneurs and structural influence in integrated community case management policymaking in Burkina Faso. Health Policy and Planning 30(suppl_2): ii46-ii53.
• Valente, T. W., Watkins, S. C., Jato, M. N., Van Der Straten, A., Tsitsol, L. P. M. 1997. Social network associations with contraceptive use among Cameroonian women in voluntary associations. Social Science & Medicine 45(5): 677-687.
• White, K., Watkins, S. C. 2000. Accuracy, stability and reciprocity in informal conversational networks in rural Kenya. Social Networks 22(4): 337-355.
• Wonodi, C.B., Privor-Dumm, L., Aina, M., Pate, A.M., Reis, R., Gadhoke, P., Levine, O.S. 2012. Using social network analysis to examine the decision-making process on new vaccine introduction in Nigeria. Health Policy and Planning 27(suppl_2): ii27-ii38.
• Yamanis T, Dervisevic E, Mulawa M, Conserve D, Barrington C, Kajula L, Maman S. 2017. Social network influence on HIV testing among urban men in Tanzania. AIDS and Behavior 21(4): 1171-1182.
• Yamanis T, Fisher J, Moody JW, and Kajula LJ. 2015. Young men’s social network characteristics and associations with sexual partnership concurrency in Tanzania. AIDS and Behavior 20(6): 1244-1255.

Technologies and communication

• Gallois S, Lubbers MJ, Hewlett B, Reyes-Garcia V. 2018. Social networks and knowledge transmission strategies among Baka children, Southeastern Cameroon. Human Nature 29: 442–463.
• Kusimba, S.B., Yang, Y., Chawla, N.V. 2015. Family networks of mobile money in Kenya. Information Technologies & International Development 11(3): 1-21.
• Lamb, J.N., Moore, K.M., Norton, J., Omondi, E.C., Laker-Ojok, R., Sikuku, D.N., Ashilenje, D.S. and Odera, J., 2016. A social networks approach for strengthening participation in technology innovation: Lessons learnt from the Mount Elgon region of Kenya and Uganda. International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability 14(1): 65-81.
• Miller, B.P., Shrum, W. 2011. The gender digital divide in the research sectors of Ghana, Kenya, and Kerala: Are women more connected over time? Gender, Technology and Development 15(1): 25-52.
• Shrum, W, Mbatia P.N., Palackal, A., Dzorgbo, D.B.S., Duque, R.B., Ynalvez, M.A. 2011. Mobile phones and core network growth in Kenya: Strengthening weak ties. Social Science Research 40(2): 614-625.

Migration

• Mazzucato V. 2009. Informal insurance arrangements in Ghanaian migrants’ transnational networks: The role of reverse remittances and geographic proximity. World Development 37(6): 1105-1115.
• Schon, J. 2018. Using ERGMs to disaggregate displacement cascades. Journal of Social Structure 19(1): 1-40.
• Toma, S., Vause, S. 2014. Gender differences in the role of migrant networks: Comparing Congolese and Senegalese migration flows. International Migration Review 48(4): 972–997.

And of course

• Mitchell, J.C. (ed.) 1969. Social Networks in Urban Situations. Analyses of Personal Relationships in Central African Towns. Manchester, Manchester University Press (see Mitchell Centre for Social Network Analysis here).