Network Governance Arrangements Research Articles

Network governance and reflexivity in fisheries management: a case study of Northern Ireland

ABSTRACT Network governance arrangements, wherein resource users are empowered, are vital for ocean sustainability. These arrangements are critical to implementing innovative practices, particularly those developed to address the negative impacts of top-down management. The adoption of networked governance can foster resource management capacity and equitable decision-making. Research has focused on social ties within networks but has provided a somewhat limited account of how networks evolve to instil novel practices. To implement new practices, networks must engage in reflexive governance. Reflexivity is underpinned by actors’ receptivity to change and network learning. Actors’ receptivity to change relates to whether they acknowledge past failures and how novel management ideas become accepted. Network learning is the degree of change instigated by actors’ reflexive processes. Drawing on the receptivity and network learning theories, and informed by semi-structured interviews, an assessment was conducted on how a fisheries management network in Northern Ireland has reflexively evolved to implement new practices. Findings illustrate that the network has reflexively redesigned how they collaborate, share knowledge, and contribute to policymaking. Demonstrating single– and double-loop learning, these developments have been derived from reflections on the failure of past processes and the instigation of more co-creative processes that benefit all network actors.

Toward adaptive water governance: the role of systemic feedbacks for learning and adaptation in the eastern transboundary rivers of South Africa

This paper contributes to scholarship on adaptive water governance (AWG), following policy reforms in South Africa, through a focus on systemic feedbacks for learning and adaptation as critical aspects of AWG. We draw insights from three innovative and evolving water governance experiments. In 1998 South Africa adopted integrated water resources management (IWRM) as a transformative approach for achieving an equitable, sustainable, and decentralized stakeholder-centered water resources governance: all hallmarks of an enabling environment for a two-decade history of AWG, although not named as such. Progress in AWG is explored by using a longitudinal, evaluative exploration of three cases in two transboundary basins in South Africa, with a focus on the unfolding enabling environment for achieving sustainability and equity. Building on previous work, we present and discuss a range of enablers that are shown to function systemically to support feedbacks and build adaptive capacity and resilience in complex and uncertain river systems. In the Crocodile Basin, meta-governance arrangements that created an enabling space for collaborative experimentation and learning proved critical as feedbacks were progressively strengthened and embedded through evolving social and institutional arrangements. The enabling environment also supported a networked, blended system of stakeholder- and state-led platforms that have co-evolved through experimentation and learning. Despite progress, long-term persistence of action-learning feedbacks appears less certain in the Olifants Basin cases. We suggest that enabling meta-governance arrangements that offer an institutional home within which to embed learning is critical. The need to explore alternative networked governance arrangements and to explicitly manage for feedbacks that enhance learning at multiple scales is emphasized. We conclude with recommendations for future work on AWG, including reconciling differences between AWG and IWRM that originally framed South African reforms.

The Interplay between Civil Society and Local Government in South Africa: Conflict and Collaboration in the Delivery of Public Services

In recent years, following the dawn of democracy in South Africa, there has been a renewed thrust by civic organisations in matters of local-level service provision. The role of formal and informal organisations in highlighting inadequate provision of basic services by municipalities has attracted the attention of, first, the media, and now researchers and policymakers alike. The interest is mainly due to the abrupt and often violent nature of civic involvement in service delivery protests often directed at local municipalities in diverse and far-flung areas of the country. In this conceptual paper, a discussion of civic involvement in pre- and post-South Africa’s democratic local government is advanced by exploring the historical development of civic organisations' role, notably how that role has been reconfigured since the dawn of South Africa’s democracy. In the context of poorly resourced municipalities, a critique of collaborative ventures in developing and delivering essential water and sanitation services is provided while exploring the complexities of network governance arrangements and the opportunities they present for livelihoods. The paper then concludes by looking at prospects for the future and making recommendations on how poorly resourced municipalities could leverage civil society organisations’ role through collaborative network governance for the greater good of promoting sustainable livelihoods in South Africa.

Network Governance Arrangements and Rural-Urban Synergy

Increasing attention has been paid to the importance of balanced rural–urban interaction to sustainable regional development. Yet, our knowledge on the elements of network governance for such interaction is scarce. The aim of this paper is to study what kind of network governance arrangements currently exist, how they can be improved, and whether evolutionary governance paths can be identified. We analyse five existing and evolving cases of functioning rural–urban interaction in European Union (EU) member states, using a network governance framework as an analytical lens. We supplement the governance analysis with examining what kind of spatial understanding or combination of different spatial lenses the studied rural–urban governance arrangements rely on, as well as with the role of smart development in the studied cases. Our results emphasise the significance of division of power and collaborative decision-design in guaranteeing balanced and mutually beneficial interaction. Furthermore, we recommend changes in current policies in order to tap into the potential of rural–urban synergy.

Creative-led strategies for peripheral settlements and the uneasy transition towards sustainability

ABSTRACT The creative cities discourse has long-overlooked the impact of the new creative economy regime on rural areas, often legitimazing arguable urban-biased policies. This paper illustrates how two small towns, in Asia and in Europe, have attempted to build creative settlements, setting up agendas for sustainability transition. This has implied a strategy to reposition the local economy around notions of culture and creativity, deconstructing mainstream pro-growth discourses. It has been also accompanied by the experimentation of forms of engagement of local communities. The aim is to explain the challenges encountered during this process, and to distil, from this experience, the potential factors that might hinder a real process of transition towards sustainability in the long run. It will conclude that employing effective creative-led strategies, to overcome ‘smallness’ and ‘marginality’ in a sustainable way, should be based on the strengthening of local planning capacities, and the development of effective network governance arrangements.

A Decade of C40: Research Insights and Agendas for City Networks

AbstractIn the last decade, there has been a marked growth in formalised city networks. City networks of late have transcended beyond municipal collaborations towards more complex networked governance arrangements. City networks are noted also to raise the level of ambition among cities learning from and competing with each other with regard to the deployment of low‐carbon technologies and policies. Over the last two decades, at least nine urban climate networks have been established around the world. This article consolidates the academic literature on C40 within the context of three key themes that are drawn upon from earlier work of Davidson et al. with the goal of drawing out the key implications of researching, and putting into practice, urban studies in an age of increasingly networked urban governance and the role of city networks. We conclude the paper with articulating a new research agenda that places a focus on the effects of city networks on institutional relevance of traditional planning in ways that have not yet been considered in practice and scholarship. We argue a key challenge is to align and potentially synthesise these traditional and new forms of city shaping in an urban age era of rapidly unfolding endangerment.

Meta-governance and the segregated city: difficulties with realizing the participatory ethos in network governance – evidence from Malmö City, Sweden

ABSTRACT Efforts to strategically implement governance reforms have become a common way in which to deal with complex social and political issues. The analysis presented in this article addresses recent governance reforms in Malmö, Sweden, that are intended to help resolve complex problems of urban segregation and social inequality. The article identifies important difficulties that have been encountered in promoting increased participation in spite of the great awareness on the part of local actors of the problems facing the community. The study brings forth evidence that there are good reasons for reassessing the inclusive ethos of network governance and for a critical investigation of precisely who gains access to political processes when network governance arrangements are implemented from above.

Digital platforms for smallholder credit access: The mediation of trust for cooperation in maize value chain financing

Maize production is of critical importance to smallholder farmers in Ghana. Various factors limit the productivity of smallholder maize farming systems undergirded by the lack of capital for critical investments both at the farm and at national policy levels. Using a value chain approach, this diagnostic study explains how a complex configuration of actor interaction within an institutionally and agro-ecologically challenged value chain leads to the enduring absence of maize farming credit support. We find a cycle of credit rationing resulting from value chain challenges such as agro-ecological uncertainties, inadequate GAPs training, weak farmer groups and market insecurity. This condition is sustained by an interplay between mistrust, insufficient information across the value chain and inadequate control strategies in the maize credit system. We argue that Digital Platforms (DPs) show potential to help overcome some information and communication gaps and related uncertainties that impede traditional value chain credit arrangements. This is promising in terms of aiding awareness and coordinated responsiveness to agro-ecological farm conditions and the development of farming records databases. Thus, DPs could generate new networks and forms of cooperation in the maize value chain in this regard. As a tool for mediating trust in value chain credit cooperation, strategic use of these DP contributions could help initiate an entry point for recalibration of trust perceptions. Significant considerations and improvements are however needed to harness DPs effectively in mediating trust for maize credit provision, not least being farmer digital inclusion in DP implementation, effective intermediation and network governance arrangements and digital contributions towards cost-effective agro-ecological controls in the erratic maize farming context. This approach to trust building should therefore not be viewed as a quick fix but as a process of trial and error, and learning by doing.

A theoretical framework for analyzing institutionalized domination in network governance arrangements

ABSTRACTNetwork governance, which involves an informal and self-regulated set of public and private actors, who together address various political and social problems, has substantially altered the institutional landscape concerning the formation and implementation of public policy. A common view is that this has made it possible to enhance pluralism and disperse political power by transferring power from the sovereign state to a wider set of private actors and stakeholders. I argue in this article that we need to analyze network governance in reference to the concept of domination and the theoretical tradition of neo-republicanism. For this purpose, I develop a theoretical framework that specifies five dimensions in which domination may arise and, conversely, be mitigated. An alternative image of network governance emerges which reveals that this type of governance may in fact generate a form of institutional domination that encompasses both citizens and civil society actors due to the arbitrary influence that certain network participants come to exercise upon the life choices of nonparticipants.

The Practice of Water Policy Governance Networks: An International Comparative Case Study Analysis

ABSTRACTGovernments are increasingly using network governance arrangements to engage stakeholders in tackling complex water policy issues. Claims that this involves a shift from government to governance, with associated loss of state authority, are challenged by empirical literature. We draw on governmentality theory to explore the practices and power dynamics of water policy networks in six significant longitudinal case studies in Australia, the United States, and France. Though contexts differ, the analysis highlights the dynamic nature of these complex policy arenas, where governance arrangements and objectives are periodically revised in response to changing pressures. Governments clearly retain decision-making authority despite adopting more deliberative, networked approaches, and implementation remains challenging. Findings suggest that the hybrid and multiscalar nature of water policy governance warrants a more sophisticated understanding of the power dynamics and political dimensions of networked governance employed within hierarchical systems.

Networked Social Enterprises: A New Model of Community Schooling for Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Facing Challenging Times

Community schools have long been accepted as an institutional mechanism for intervening in the relationship between poverty, poor educational outcomes, and limited life chances. At a time when public services are being retracted, and disadvantaged places are being increasingly left to struggle, community schools are poised to become more important in offering a response to the needs of children, families, and communities in these places. Yet, despite their apparent promise, community schools remain badly under-conceptualized. As an international field, research on community schooling has rarely articulated or questioned how—by providing additional learning and leisure opportunities and personal and social supports—community schools might create a viable intervention in the relationship between poverty and poor outcomes. This paper explicitly addresses this significant challenge. Conceptualizing empirical findings emerging from a research-practice partnership, it identifies the core features of a new institutional design for community schools which can help to clarify their potential contribution to addressing disadvantage. Marking a considerable shift from a traditional design of simply adding new services to the school day, it argues that community schools will need to operate as social enterprises with networked governance arrangements, and to develop strategies which engage with children’s social ecologies, and are risk-reducing and resilience-building within these. This, in turn, sets a new agenda for significantly advancing the field of community schooling by further defining—conceptually and empirically—the core elements of a new institutional design as identified here.

Data, Dialogue, and Innovation: Opportunities and Challenges for “Open Government” in Canada

In a rapidly evolving online environment where the inter-relationship between information and innovation is evolving from primarily closed and inward structures to much more open and networked governance arrangements, the public sector faces growing pressures and new opportunities to reform and adapt. Open data and big data are now widely embraced initiatives to spur innovation both inside of and outside of the public sector. Their capacity to foster innovation is nonetheless shaped by critical tensions between traditional government structures and culture on the one hand and more open and participative notions of governance on the other hand. Within such a context, this article examines the current Government of Canada Open Government Action Plan and its three main dimensions: information, data, and dialogue. The analysis reveals that despite some progress in the realm of open data, information and dialogue are constrained by the aforementioned tensions and the need for wider reforms to various architectural facets of the public sector – administratively, technologically, politically, and socially. Across each of these layers, we consider the sorts of wider reforms required in order to facilitate systemic innovation within the government and across sectors.

Deploying governance networks for societal challenges

Governments are increasingly engaging private sector organizations, civil society and citizens to tackle complex policy challenges through some forms of networked governance arrangements. These governance networks which in general facilitate flexibility, speed and innovation in government, when compared with traditional governance forms, are necessary to meaningfully govern smart societies characterised by many programs spanning policy domains and levels of governments. This article presents a conceptual framework for governance networks and applies the framework to describe and analyse six case studies presented as part of the Track on “Governing through Networks” of the International Conference on the Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance (ICEGOV2013) Conference. Insights from the analysis of these cases somewhat suggest that: 1) governance networks are still largely steered by government; 2) efficacy of governance networks is contingent on citizen’s inclusion in the governance networks; and 3) mobile social media platforms could constitute a key infrastructure for enabling citizen participation in these governance networks. Important policy and research challenges in this domain include how to effectively motivate citizen participation in these networks and align the divergent views of the different actors collaborating in the network.

Network governance and capacity of local governments to deliver LED in Uganda

This paper discusses network governance and its contribution to the capacity of local governments (LGs) to deliver local economic development (LED) in Uganda. Although a formal LED policy was only established in Uganda in February 2014, there have been LED-inspired practices in the past decade. Various scholars and practitioners have observed that the autonomy and capacity of LGs to deliver LED is limited, but have been hopeful that new governance strategies like network governance would increase the capacities of LGs. However, neither network governance arrangements among LGs, nor their potential to improve governance capacity, have been documented. In a case study of Kyenjojo District, this paper finds that existing network governance arrangements have been fundamental in improving financial autonomy at this LG, delivering some income to invest in LED activities, although no evidence was found of reduced transaction costs in transforming local economies. The study further reveals that network governance arrangements have not led to the development of specialised skills in regulation or law enforcement, and capacity gaps are evident amongst staff and members in understanding the private sector and how it works. On a positive note, there is clear evidence of attempts by the LG to be innovative. Based on these findings, this study recommends that LGs need to consider a multi-pronged or multi-network governance approach to LED, which in turn will require a refocusing of governance mechanisms to become more dynamic and responsive, and offer incentives to the various actors in the development sector.

Setting the context for using complexity theory in evaluation: boundaries, governance and utilisation

Recent literature has usefully explored the application of complexity theory to evaluation. However, there is little discussion of the contextual conditions in applying complexity theory. Drawing upon a single complexity-consistent public health programme evaluation and subsequent policy decisions, this paper considers how programme framing and governance can help or hinder application of complexity theory. A wider framing of the programme and cross-system network governance arrangements are suggested as important components to a complexity theory-informed policy practice.

The Contingent Role of Centrality in IT Network Governance: An Empirical Examination

Since the importance of collaboration across organizational boundaries for firms’ competitive success continues to grow dramatically, research on inter-organizational relationships has become prominent in business and information systems (IS) research. Particularly inter-organizational networks have been widely recognized by both academics and practitioners as an important form of multi-organizational governance. Those networks rely heavily on integrated information systems in order to generate value from co-creation, co-development, and co-innovation. Therefore, the integration of IS across partnering organizations has become the backbone of collaboration in inter-organizational networks. Despite the efforts invested in the field of IT governance arrangements, research still lacks empirical evidence on the relationship between governance choices and different internal and external network factors and their influence on governance effectiveness. Thus, this study sets out to expand the understanding of how network organizations can effectively develop and manage IS integration in order to co-create value. It contributes with a characterization of IT network governance arrangements along the dimension from highly centralized to highly decentralized IT related decision making in networks. Moreover, by drawing on contingency theory this paper develops a theoretical model proposing effective governance arrangements according to six contingency variables. A multiple case study methodology is applied in order to validate the theoretical relationships, and the data supports the basic structure of the research model. Our findings suggest that network size, network structure centralization, functional diversity, network trust, IT infusion, and IT competence are important factors for the understanding of effective IT governance arrangements in inter-organizational networks. The paper offers insights into the causal mechanisms behind the theoretical relationships and is a first step towards a more differentiated perspective on contingent governance structures in inter-organizational networks.

Governance, Privatization, and Systemic Risk in the Disarticulated State

With the United States grappling with the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression, questions are emerging about whether outsourcing contributes to the instability of government service production. In this article, the authors explore systemic risk in privatized service implementation networks. Reliance on networks of private agents for service production contributes to the disarticulated and fragmented state and increases the potential for systemic crisis if shocks to the network occur, putting vulnerable clients at risk. Government must focus on understanding systemic risk in networked governance arrangements and building resilient networks to avoid crises, the authors argue. Finally, potential research on systemic risk in networked governance arrangements is discussed.In public administration as governance, it is essential that we do not diminish our institutions to such an extent that we lose our capacity to support the development of sound public policy, as well as our ability to effectively implement that policy.

Environmental governance and its implications for conservation practice

AbstractGovernments are no longer the most important source of decision making in the environmental field. Instead, new actors are playing critical decision‐making roles, and new mechanisms and forums for decision making are becoming important (e.g., in some contexts regulation is being supplemented or replaced by markets and cooperative arrangements). New ways of governing in relation to the environment have important implications for the practice of conservation. Greater awareness of key ideas and concepts of environmental governance can help conservation managers and scientists participate more effectively in governance processes. Understanding how conservation practice is influenced by emergent hybrid and network governance arrangements is particularly important. This short review explores key environmental governance concepts relevant to the practice of conservation, with specific reference to institutional fit and scale; adaptiveness, flexibility and learning; the coproduction of knowledge from diverse sources; the emergence of new actors and their roles in governance; and changing expectations about accountability and legitimacy. Case‐based examples highlight key directions in environmental governance.