Transcending Analytical Cliquishness with Second-generation Governance Network Analysis

Two distinct traditions in the analysis of governance networks appear to have developed without drawing significantly on one another’s methodological and analytical strengths. The first, Social Network Analysis, is primarily practiced by American social scientists applying quantitative research methods. It emphasizes the network attributes of actors and/or their structural position in larger networks. The second tradition, Policy Network Studies, is primarily a European phenomenon emphasizing the economic and political resources that actors bring with them to networks, interdependence between network actors, as well as the larger institutional context in which network negotiation is embedded.