Fight against “the set-up” and SNA prospects in Poland
Today Polish PM revealed that there are some attempts made to analyze computer models of “the set-up”. “The set-up” (”arrangement”, if you will) denotes the entirety of informal relationships between business circles, politicians ruling in Poland (before the party of said PM ), former communist secret police and intelligence agents and criminal underground. The the destruction of “the arrangement” is presented as one of the main political goals of polish government. However “the set-up” still remains a figure of political rhetoric rather than well defined entity that law enforcement would have chance to attend to. As such, it adds to the steadily growing repertoire of government’s ideas and actions criticized, nay, ridiculed by opposition and some of the public.
Now, however, somebody is doing Social Network Analysis for PM Kaczynski in order to make the concept of “the set-up” more concrete - this is an instant interpretation of PM’s words about computer model of informal political-business-criminal arrangement.
The whole thing is troubling for SNA analyst. The word used in Polish for “set up” or “arrangement” is układ, which is also a synonym for “system”. On his blog Dominik Batorski argues that SNA will always reveal some kind of set-up/system of social ties. My concern is that after the government’s study is published it might become difficult to perform SNA in Poland especially when it comes to acquiring data from third parties. When the governments study is revealed and the notions of SNA or even network itself become associated with chasing quasi-criminal activity, every manager, every internet site admin will think twice before presenting social researcher with data, fearing that they will reveal some kind of “arrangement”. Explaining that we only want to described the “setup of social system” might prove to be of little help.
It is hard to expect that methodological side of the study will be presented with all nuances and qualifications; after all the results are meant to be used politically, most likely during parliamentary election campaign. In the result the whole area of SNA might be ridiculed along with the idea of “the set-up” and lives of Polish SNA researchers might become even harder.
+ Interview with PM Kaczynski (pl)
+ Gazeta.pl about the interview (pl)
+ Entry in blog of Dominik Batorski (pl)
+ Another comment - Edwin Bendyk (pl)
tags:networks politics