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Managing Complex Networks
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Managing Complex Networks
Strategies for the Public Sector

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August 1997 | 224 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
This innovative volume develops a network management approach to governance and public management, and shows how governments can manage policy networks to enhance policy performance and public service delivery. It is increasingly apparent that neither bureaucracy nor markets provide ultimate solutions for governance in modern societies. Public policy is made and implemented in networks of independent public and private actors. Managing Complex Networks argues that the management of such networks is an important part of a practical approach to public management. Although the concept of policy networks is now well established in the field, most research has contented itself with description and analysis of their contribution to policy failure. This book goes further. It accepts policy networks as a fundamental characteristic of modern societies and illustrates the various strategies for intervention. The book ends with presenting a toolkit for the management of these networks. The scholars contributing to this book have come to the forefront of research in the field of policy networks and their management. What they have to say about this topic is vital reading for academics and advanced level students in management, organization studies, public administration, political science and policy studies, as well as for public service professionals.

R A W Rhodes
Foreword
W J M Kickert, E-H Klijn and J F M Koppenjan
Introduction
A Management Perspective on Policy Networks

 
 
PART ONE: POLICY NETWORKS AND NETWORK MANAGEMENT: A STATE OF THE ART
E-H Klijn
Policy Networks
An Overview

 
W J M Kickert and J F M Koppenjan
Public Management and Network Management
An Overview

 
 
PART TWO: NETWORK DYNAMICS AND MANAGEMENT
L Schaap and M J W van Twist
The Dynamics of Closedness in Networks
C J A M Termeer and J F M Koppenjan
Managing Perceptions in Networks
E-H Klijn and G R Teisman
Strategies and Games in Networks
Analyzing and Managing Dynamic Processes in Complex Networks

 
J A de Bruijn and E F ten Heuvelhof
Instruments for Network Management
L J O'Toole Jr, K I Hanf and P L Hupe
Managing Implementation Processes in Complex Networks
J A de Bruijn and A B Ringeling
Normative Notes
Perspectives on Networks

 
 
PART THREE: CONCLUSION: STRATEGIES FOR NETWORK MANAGEMENT
W J M Kickert, E-H Klijn and J F M Koppenjan
Managing Networks in the Public Sector
Findings and Reflections

 

`Today some of the most interesting advances in network management theory and its applications to the public sector find their origins in Europe. This text [is] well worth the attention of serious policy and public administration scholars... and graduate students' - Professor Richard Stillman II, Graduate School of Public Affairs, University of Colorado at Denver

`Networks or subsytems are the unit of analysis to which we must turn our attention if progress is to continue in the social sciences and applied fields. This volume points the way' - Professor Gary L Wamsley, Center for Public Administration and Policy, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

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