Governance Modeling: Dimensionality and Conjugacy

Abstract

The Q-analysis governance approach and the use of simplicial complexes—type of hypergraph—allow to introduce the formal concepts of dimension and conjugacy between the network of entities involved in governance (typically organizations) and the networks of those attributes taken into account (e.g. their competences), which offer a specific angle of analysis. The different sources of existing data (e.g. textual corpora) to feed the analysis of governance—environmental in particular—are mentioned, their reliability is briefly discussed and the required pre-processing steps are identified in the perspective of evidence-based analyses. Various indices are constructed and evaluated to characterize the context of governance as a whole, at mesoscale, or locally, i.e. at the level of each of the entities and each of the attributes considered. The analysis of ideal-type stylizing boundary cases provides useful references to the analysis of concrete systems of governance and to the interpretation of their empirically observed properties. The use of this governance modeling approach is illustrated by the analysis of a health-environment governance system in Southeast Asia, in the context of a One Health approach.