Kinship Relations of Models

Abstract

In order to show how models are interconnected, Mansnerus focuses on a family of models, built in Helsinki in the 1990s. This interconnectedness has a broader reach, which can be conceptualised as ‘kinship relations’, a notion initially used by Hoover (1991) in relation to economic models. Mansnerus argues that the interconnectedness of models shows how modelling methods, parameter values and estimates, and model-based evidence are stored and disseminated within and across research communities. By understanding the evolving relations of models, the nature of model-based evidence on its journey through public health research networks is made clear.