Dynamic visualizations for violence prevention

This poster documents the use of dynamic visualizations and data interfaces for an ongoing complex systems-based violence prevention intervention case study. The scope of project visualizations used span the development, implementation, and evaluation of a social simulation that models a ‘safer migration’ intervention in the context of low-wage labor migration between Myanmar and Thailand. This project employed dynamic visualizations at various stages, including, participatory social network data collection, mixed-methods social network analysis, conceptualization of violence and migration systems theory, generating and analyzing system and intervention simulations using agent-based modelling, and disseminating web-accessible outputs and findings for a wide audience.

Preliminary findings from this ongoing work suggest that using dynamic visual representations of complex systems as a research tool can lead to more pluralistic and interdisciplinary methodological approaches to knowledge production in the field of violence intervention research. Dynamic visualizations can serve as a conduit for empirical richness, a touchpoint for interdisciplinary collaboration, a visual check for model verification, and a supporting tool to assist with stakeholder validation of causal inference, and an instrument to inform intervention development through scenario testing.