Net-Map (Influence Network Mapping)
Also known as: Net-Map, Influence Network Mapping, Participatory Influence Mapping, Influence Tower Mapping
Net-Map is a participatory, paper-based tool developed by Eva Schiffer for collecting social and influence network data while helping participants reflect on the networks they are part of. Sitting around a large sheet, participants name the actors involved in a goal or process, draw and label the links between them by type (for example funding, information, or command), and then stack physical 'influence towers' — disks or blocks — beside each actor to show how much power that actor holds. The session produces both a rich qualitative discussion and a quantitative, analyzable network with weighted nodes and typed, directed ties.
Key highlights
- Captures qualitative reasoning and quantitative network data — typed links and influence weights — in a single session.
- Low-tech and paper-based, so it works across literacy levels and settings without specialized equipment.
- Doubles as an intervention: building the map helps participants learn about and reflect on their own network.
- Externalizes tacit knowledge of power and ties, surfacing relationships that formal organizational charts conceal.
Intuition
This section is available to Pro members. Upgrade to Pro
How it works
This section is available to Pro members. Upgrade to Pro
When to use it
Use Net-Map when you need to understand who influences a process, how actors are connected, and why — especially in governance, development, or organizational settings where formal charts hide the real power structure. It is well suited to multi-stakeholder situations, to surfacing tacit knowledge, and to doubling as a facilitation tool that helps participants learn about their own network. It assumes participants are willing to discuss power openly and that a skilled facilitator is present. It is less appropriate for very large networks that exceed what one sheet can hold, for purely structural studies needing complete sociometric rosters, or where candidly naming powerful actors is unsafe for participants.
Strengths & limitations
- Captures qualitative reasoning and quantitative network data — typed links and influence weights — in a single session.
- Low-tech and paper-based, so it works across literacy levels and settings without specialized equipment.
- Doubles as an intervention: building the map helps participants learn about and reflect on their own network.
- Externalizes tacit knowledge of power and ties, surfacing relationships that formal organizational charts conceal.
- Influence-tower scores are subjective, participant-assigned judgments rather than objective measures of power.
- A single paper sheet limits feasible network size, so very large networks cannot be mapped comprehensively.
- Results reflect the participants present and can be skewed by group dynamics or absent perspectives.
- Outputs require manual digitization before quantitative network analysis, adding effort and transcription error risk.
Common pitfalls
This section is available to Pro members. Upgrade to Pro
Applications
This section is available to Pro members. Upgrade to Pro
Frequently asked
What exactly are influence towers?
Influence towers are physical stacks of disks, checkers, or blocks that participants build next to each actor on the map. The height of an actor's tower represents how much influence participants judge that actor to have over the focal goal. They make the abstract idea of power tangible and comparable and yield a participant-assigned influence weight for each node in the network.
Is Net-Map qualitative or quantitative?
Both. The session generates qualitative data — the discussion of who matters, how actors are linked, and why each tower is built to a given height — and quantitative data in the form of a directed, multiplex network with typed edges and node-level influence weights. This dual output is the method's central appeal: it produces analyzable network data while facilitating participant learning.
How is the resulting network analyzed?
The hand-drawn map is digitized into a list of actors, typed directed ties, and influence weights, then analyzed with standard social-network tools. Researchers commonly compute centrality and visualize structure in software such as UCINET, Gephi, or the R igraph package, interpreting the metrics alongside the qualitative narrative captured during the session.
Sources
- 1.Schiffer, E., & Hauck, J. (2010). Net-Map: collecting social network data and facilitating network learning through participatory influence network mapping. Field Methods, 22(3), 231–249.
- 2.Bernard, H. R. (2017). Research Methods in Anthropology: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches (6th ed.). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.ISBN 9780759112421
You have read it. What now?
Cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 22). Net-Map (Influence Network Mapping). ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/anthropology/net-mapping