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A new method for reconstructing demographic populations after atrocities using genealogies
Diego Alburez-Gutierrez

##manager.scheduler.building##: Velodromo - Bocconi University
##manager.scheduler.room##: N03
Date: 2019-01-26 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Last modified: 2018-12-26

Abstract


This paper introduces the Extended Genealogy Method (EGM) for collecting high-quality data for demographic analysis using extended genealogies. The EGM uses network sampling to create sociocentric family networks including all members of a local population. The sampling and data processing strategies address selection bias and help evaluate data completeness. The resulting multiple reporting can be used to reduce reporting error. The paper shows how the method helped reconstruct the demographic history of a population in Guatemala after a series of massacres in 1982. Data on 3,566 unique individuals and 1,986 marriages were collected from 100 EGM interviews. The paper describes how the data were collected, processed, and checked for systematic sources of error. It also shows how they were used to characterise the demographic dynamics in the population for the 1955-2015 period. The EGM can be applied to reconstruct the demographic dynamics of local populations in contexts of data scarcity, including during and after armed conflicts. It produces time-variant demographic and social network data that can be used to study a range of social phenomena. This is useful because most of the existing methods to produce this type of data are difficult to apply in war-affected settings.


Keywords


methodology; genealogy; armed conflict