Using semantics to reveal knowledge divides in Dutch development: the case of the Millennium Development Goals
Keywords:
knowledge management, scientometrics, MDGs, global goals, semantic maps, NetherlandsAbstract
The paper is a first effort at examining the potential of scientometrics analysis to the field of development in the expectation that this type of analysis will make general patterns of knowledge within development more visible. In particular, we assume that it will reveal information on these patterns and in particular on knowledge divergences and divides within the sector. Semantic maps make it possible to compare semantics across the three domains under study, and reveal implicit frames within them. This methodology is tested using a pilot study comparing the semantics around Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in three domains involved in development: policy, science and the mass media. In particular, it compares the semantics on MDGs in the website of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in scientific articles authored by Dutch scholars, and in Dutch newspaper articles. In conclusion, the semantic maps method provided fruitful insights into comparing the semantics of the debate around MDGs in the three separate knowledge domains involved in the debate.References
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Brown, V.A. 2007. Leonardo?s vision: a guide to collective thinking and action. Rotterdam: SENSE
Publishers.
Burt, R.S. 1982. Toward a structural theory of action. New York: Academic Press.
Callon, M., Courtial, J.-P., Turner, W.A. and Bauin, S. 1983. From translations to problematic
networks: an introduction to co-word analysis, Social science information, 22, 191?235.
Callon, M., Law, J. and Rip, A., eds. 1986. Mapping the dynamics of science and technology.
London: Macmillan.
Ferguson, J.E. 2005. Bridging the gap between research and practice. Knowledge management for
development journal, 1 (1), 46?54.
Ferguson, J.E. and Cummings, S. 2007. Knowledge management in practice: the case of international
development. In Alex Koohang, ed., Knowledge management. Santa Rosa, CA: The
Informing Science.
Hellsten, I., Dawson, J. and Leydesdorff, L. (in press). Implicit media frames: automated analysis of
public debate on artifical sweetners. Public Understanding of Science.
Hesse, M. 1980. Revolutions and reconstructions in the philosophy of science. London: Harvester
Press.
Kamada, T. and Kawai, S. 1989. An algorithm for drawing general undirected graphs, Information
processing letters, 31 (1), 7?15.
Leydesdorff, L. 1989. Words and co-words as indicators of intellectual organization, Research
policy, 18, 209?223.
Leydesdorff, L. 1995. The challenge of scientometrics: the development, measurement, and selforganization
of scientific communications. Leiden: DSWO Press, Leiden University. Available
from: http://www.universal-publishers.com/book.php?method=ISBNandbook=1581126816.
Leydesdorff, L. 1997. Why words and co-words cannot map the development of the sciences?, Journal
of the American Society for Information Science, 48 (5), 418?427.
Leydesdorff, L. and Hellsten, I. 2005. Metaphors and diaphors in science communication: mapping
the case of stem-cell research, Science communication, 27 (1), 64?99.
Leydesdorff, L. and Hellsten, I. 2006. Measuring the meanings of words in contexts: automated
analysis of ?Monarch butterflies?, ?Frankenfoods? and ?stem cells?, Scientometrics 67 (2),
231?258.
Leydesdorff, L. and Vaughan, L. 2006. Co-occurrence matrices and their applications in information
science: extending ACA to the Web environment, Journal of the American Society for Information
Science and Technology, 57 (12), 1616?1628.
Lucio-Arias, D. and Leydesdorff, L. 2007. Knowledge emergence in scientific communication: from
?fullerenes? to ?nanotubes?, Scientometrics, 70 (3), 603?632.
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development 2009. Development aid at its highest
level ever in 2008 [online]. Paris: OECD. Available from: http://www.oecd.org/document/
350/.
Powell, M. 2006. Which knowledge? Whose reality? An overview of knowledge used in the development
sector. Development in practice, 16, 518?532.
Stremmelaar, J., Cummings, S. and Ho, W. 2009. Connecting ivory towers from practice, research
and policymaking. Workshop at the Ceres Summer School [online]. Unpublished report, 3pp.
84 I. Hellsten and S. Cummings
Available from: http://thegriaffe.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/090915-report-workshop-ceressummer-
school-3-july-09.pdf.
United Nations 2009. The Millennium Goals Report [online]. New York: UN. Available from: http://
www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/MDG_Report_2009_ENG.pdf.
WHO. Millennium Development Goals. Available from: http://www.who.int/topics/millenium_
development_goals/en (accessed 1 April 2010).
WHO. Millennium Development Goals: progress towards the health-related Millennium Development
Goals. Available from: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs290/en/index.html.
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2019-08-02
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