Network governance has received much attention within the fields of public administration and policy in recent years, but surprisingly few books are designed specifically to help students, researchers, and practitioners examine key concepts, synthesize the growing body of literature into reliable frameworks, and to bridge the theory-practice gap by exploring network applications. Network Governance: Concepts, Theories, and Applications is the first textbook to focus on interorganizational networks and network governance from the perspective of public policy and administration, asking important questions such as: How are networks designed and developed? How are they governed, and what type of leadership do they require? To whom are networks accountable, and when are they effective? How can network governance contribute to effective delivery of public services and policy implementation? In this timely new book, authors Naim Kapucu and Qian Hu define and examine key concepts, propose exciting new theoretical frameworks to synthetize the fast-growing body of network research in public policy and administration, and provide detailed discussion of applications. Network Governance offers not only a much-needed systematic examination of existing knowledge, but it also goes much further than existing books by discussing the applications of networks in a wide range of management practice and policy domains—including natural resource management, environmental protection, public health, emergency and crisis management, law enforcement, transportation, and community and economic development. Chapters include understudied network research topics such as power and decision-making in interorganizational networks, virtual networks, global networks, and network analysis applications. What sets this book apart is the introduction of social network analysis and coverage of applications of social network analysis in the policy and management domains. PowerPoint slides and a sample syllabus are available for adopters on an accompanying website. Drawing on literature from sociology, policy sciences, organizational studies, and economics, this textbook will be required reading for courses on network governance, collaborative public management, cross-sector governance, and collaboration and partnerships in programs of public administration, public affairs, and public policy.

Governance Networks in the Public Sector presents a comprehensive study of governance networks and the management of complexities in network settings. Public, private and non-profit organizations are increasingly faced with complex, wicked problems when making decisions, developing policies or delivering services in the public sector. These activities take place in networks of interdependent actors guided by diverging and sometimes conflicting perceptions and strategies. As a result these networks are dominated by cognitive, strategic and institutional complexities. Dealing with these complexities requires sophisticated forms of coordination: network governance. This book presents the most recent theoretical and empirical insights into governance networks. It provides a conceptual framework and analytical tools to study the complexities involved in handling wicked problems in governance networks in the public sector. The book also discusses strategies and management recommendations for governments, business and third sector organisations operating in and governing networks. Governance Networks in the Public Sector is an essential text for advanced students of public management, public administration, public policy and political science, and for public managers and policymakers.

Public and private managers who are looking for sustainable development have to implement innovative solutions in a complex field of action. Joint action is needed, but the existing power networks within and between public and private domains tend to frustrate joint innovations. This book analyzes how public and private managers deal with energy transitions by creating innovative networks capable of co-ordinated action. A case study shows how separated power networks in the field of mobility, energy and environment, which are spread over the public and private world as well as civil society, are becoming more interconnected

This innovative volume explores the role of networks and variation in their forms of governance in delivering successful local and regional economic development. Written by experts from different disciplines, it offers a judicious mix of general theoretical reflections and specific case studies of different places, sectors, and scales. The result is an important contribution to an emerging research agenda on networked governance and the governance of networks and their influence on competitiveness in and across different scales of economic activities. Bob Jessop, Lancaster University, UK Networks, Governance and Economic Development represents one of the most authoritative compilations on the role of networks. The editors have brought together an impressive group of scholars who, from different disciplinary approaches, provide a fantastic overview of the key aspects in the governance of networks and on how they affect local economic development. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, London School of Economics, UK This compact and authoritative book brings together the topical themes of networks and governance to advance understanding of the determinants of local economic development in the context of increasingly global relationships. Analyzing the governance of networks is critical in understanding how individual localities are able to promote development and consolidate positions within global production systems. In addressing such issues, this book accomplishes a significant bridging of disciplinary boundaries, incorporating different theoretical and empirical perspectives on the meanings and roles of territory, economic development and different forms of networks and governance. Networks, Governance and Economic Development brings together the analysis of leading researchers in their fields, following their interactions at a European Science Foundation exploratory workshop. The chapters will be an invaluable resource to researchers working in the fields of regional economic development, economic geography and economic policy as well as postgraduate students taking modules that specialize in aspects of the above themes.

Politics is intuitively about relationships, but until recently the network perspective has not been a dominant part of the methodological paradigm that political scientists use to study politics. This volume is a foundational statement about networks in the study of politics.

This Oxford Handbook will be the definitive study of governance for years to come. 'Governance' has become one of the most popular terms in contemporary political science; this Handbook explores the full range of meaning and application of the concept and its use in a number of research fields.

A fundamental, but mostly hidden, transformation is happening in the way public services are being delivered, and in the way local and national governments fulfill their policy goals. Government executives are redefining their core responsibilities away from managing workers and providing services directly to orchestrating networks of public, private, and nonprofit organizations to deliver the services that government once did itself. Authors Stephen Goldsmith and William D. Eggers call this new model “governing by network” and maintain that the new approach is a dramatically different type of endeavor that simply managing divisions of employees. Like any changes of such magnitude, it poses major challenges for those in charge. Faced by a web of relationships and partnerships that increasingly make up modern governance, public managers must grapple with skill-set issues (managing a contract to capture value); technology issues (incompatible information systems); communications issues (one partner in the network, for example, might possess more information than another); and cultural issues (how interplay among varied public, private, and nonprofit sector cultures can create unproductive dissonance). Governing by Network examines for the first time how managers on both sides of the aisle, public and private, are coping with the changes. Drawing from dozens of case studies, as well as established best practices, the authors tell us what works and what doesn’t. Here is a clear roadmap for actually governing the networked state for elected officials, business executives, and the broader public.