Mapping Social Protection and Conflict Prevention Research in the Middle East and North Africa (Mapping MENA) was developed to support the MENASP Network in its goal of transforming scholarship to conflict prevention and social protection research about the MENA region. Mapping MENA sought to achieve this by tracing the development of Anglophone social protection and conflict prevention research related to the MENA region from the 1970s to the present. Its key objectives were to:
- Build a comprehensive account of the geographical and disciplinary distribution of authors, institutions, collaborations, and research themes that define social protection and conflict prevention scholarship.
- Examine the potential for integration and collaboration between social protection and conflict prevention research in the MENA region by tracking interconnections through authorship networks, institutional affiliations, and shared research themes.
This required a bibliometric approach to systematically analyse both fields of research. Once this methodology was established, it became clear that to achieve its aims, the project needed to address the following key questions: How can we quantify and qualify publications focused on the MENA region over the past fifty years? Who were the researchers writing the articles and books? What institutions funded this research? Where were those institutions located? What salient themes were explored? Do particular researchers focus on specific topics in specific parts of the MENA region?
These are just some of the key questions that have shaped our investigation. In the following research note, we outline our approach and present key findings that illustrate our solutions, drawing on insights from our broader publications.