Mapping GAN "Domains"

GANs form in the absence of effective governance, with the input of individuals and institutions that share interest in a public policy issue. One way to understand GANs is as a response to the need to bring greater “coherence” to ad hoc, project-level activities to create a “system consciousness”. Defining the emerging system and its boundaries is a critical task in evolution of GANs. There are various “mapping” technologies that can assist in this.

In its first project in 2001 GAN-Net undertook a simplistic mapping approach with four important international organizations working in "problem domains": climate change, food security, sustainability and trade. From these domains it produced short profiles for the following that have GAN qualities to varying degrees (those in italics are project case studies):

In 2002 GAN-Net applied a more sophisticated mapping technique to develop with the Global Reporting Initiative a strategy for initiating local networks of a GAN.

This resulted in a report and draft methodology. One map it produced is shown below.

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This map is a product of GRI’s core operating theory and the existing networks in South Africa where the project took place. There are two theoretical components: that work must be multi-stakeholder and that it must address the triple bottom line. This map shows that there are five distinct networks in South Africa dealing with the GRI theory, and therefore GRI’s task is to weave together these networks—in contrast to simply starting a new network.

In 2003 GAN-Net and the International Center for Trade and Sustainable Development undertook another project to map the domains and agriculture and intellectual property with respect to trade and sustainable development. This is described in a paper. This approach builds upon the GRI strategy using ValueNet Works™ methodology. This combines the strengths of both the social network and process approaches, and also incorporates current understanding of the importance of knowledge and intangibles in value creation. (Allee 1997; Allee 2000; Allee 2000; Allee 2003) This analysis method was developed after years of applied practice in organizations, and incorporates the latest thinking for knowledge management, intellectual capital, and intangibles management, as well as theories of organizations as living networks. As a value network, any organization can be described as a web of relationships that generates material or social value through complex dynamic exchanges of both tangible and intangible goods, services, and benefits.

A project with IUCN began in mid-2004 to further develop this mapping approach. The goal is to create a methodology that can be easily used by GANs to understand the “system” that they are work in and developing.

Allee, V. (1997). The Knowledge Evolution: Expanding Organizational Intelligence. Boston, MA, USA, Butterworth-Neinemann.

Allee, V. (2000). "Reconfiguring the Value Network." Journal of Business Strategy 21: 36-39.

Allee, V. (2000). "The Value Evolution." Journal of Intellectual Capital 1: 17-32.

Allee, V. (2003). The Future of Knowledge: Increasing Prosperity through Value Networks. New York, NY, USA, Butterworth-Heinemann.