Methods in democratic network governance / edited by Peter Bogason and Mette Zølner.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bogason, Peter.

Zølner, Mette.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Public administration--Europe.

Public administration.

Public-private sector cooperation--Europe.

Public-private sector cooperation.

Manpower policy--Europe--Case studies.

Manpower policy.

Comparative government.

Europe.

Genre:

Case studies.

Physical Description:

xiv, 249 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke [England] ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.

Summary:

How do we study network governance? How should we conduct research in practice? This book attempts to answer these questions through the analysis of a comparative pilot study of multi-level network governance of employment policy in Denmark, England and France. It details the difficulties and uncertainties that arose in the process of conducting a research project and explains why certain approaches and decisions were made in an attempt to address them. There are competing theoretical approaches to studying governance networks and there are also attempts to broaden the agenda to include questions about the democratic performance of governance networks, But, so far, methodological questions about how to conduct research into democratic network governance have received little attention among researchers.

Contents:

1 Methods for Network Governance Research: an Introduction / Peter Bogason, Mette Zolner 1

1.1 Why a book on methodology? 1

1.2 What is network governance? 3

1.3 Empirical research on network governance 6

2 A Comparative and Multi-level Analysis of Governance Networks: a Pilot Study of Employment Policy / Jacob Torfing 21

2.1 Selection of scope, policy area, countries and sites 23

2.2 Research strategy: output-based backward mapping 28

2.3 Multiple methods 32

2.4 Managing collective research processes and data collection 34

2.5 Lessons learned from the pilot study 38

3 Empirical Findings: Seven Network Stories / Jacob Torfing 41

3.1 The transnational governance network 43

3.2 The Danish national governance network 47

3.3 The English national governance network 52

3.4 The French national governance network 55

3.5 The local governance network in Koge 59

3.6 The local governance network in Birmingham 63

3.7 The local governance network in Grenoble 67

4 Comparative Analysis Based on Expert Reports / Jacob Torfing 74

4.2 Comparative studies based on expert reports 76

4.3 A critical assessment of the use of expert reports 79

4.4 How should expert reports be analysed? 84

4.5 Assessing and analysing expert reports 85

5 Document Analysis of Network Topography and Network Programmes / Anders Esmark, Peter Triantafillou 99

5.2 Different ways of reading documents 100

5.3 Documents lost and found 104

5.4 Analysing network topography 107

5.5 Analysing network programmes 116

6 Qualitative Interviews: Studying Network Narratives / Mette Zolner, Iben Orum Rasmussen, Allan Dreyer Hansen 125

6.2 Qualitative interviews in relation to the study of network governance 127

6.3 Selecting respondents 132

6.4 Conducting interviews 136

6.5 Analysing policy actors' narratives on labour market governance 141

7 Studying Local Network Exclusion through Observation and Diaries / Eva Sorensen, Jacob Torfing 148

7.2 Observation studies and diary writing 150

7.3 Undertaking observation and diary studies in Koge, Birmingham and Grenoble 156

7.4 The data material and how it was analysed 160

7.5 Analysing observations and diaries: some tentative research results 165

7.6 Concluding remarks on the use of observation and diaries in network studies 177

8 Interactive Focus Group Interviewing in Studies of Network Governance / Bodil Damgaard, Eva Sorensen 179

8.2 Interactive focus group interviewing and network governance 181

8.3 Practical application 187

8.4 Analysing network governance through focus group interviews 194

8.5 Lessons from interactive focus group interviewing in studies of governance networks 204

9 Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Methods for the Analysis of Network Governance: Promises, Problems, Pay-offs and Potentials / Susana Borras, Hans-Peter Olsen 207

9.1 The promises of method-mixing for the analysis of network governance 207

9.2 Experiences from the pilot study: the problems 209

9.3 Experiences from the pilot study: the pay-offs 214

9.4 Potentials: lessons learned and future directions 221

10.2 Challenges in the research process 227

10.3 Final points 229.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-238) and index.

ISBN:

140399529X

OCLC:

70063117

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description