The Arctic Council offers an interesting and unexplored case study of boundary work between policy makers, scientific communities, and Indigenous organizations in the circumpolar region. Its notable success can be attributed to the production of high‐quality policy products, including the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment and the Arctic Human Development Report—both of which meet the criteria of boundary objects. However, this article goes beyond applying the concept of the boundary organization to inform our understanding of the Arctic Council. Rather, I use the Council as a case study to explore the dynamic environment in which these types of institutions exist. I argue that, as a result of a number of factors, the Arctic Council is being pushed to be more action oriented. Furthermore, I consider the implications of this pressure for the institutional design of the Council and where the Council looks to affirm its credibility, saliency, and legitimacy. I conclude that the Arctic Council's effectiveness as a boundary organization is being compromised by pressures for it to be more action oriented.
Research on diffusion and transfer increasingly relies on the concept of policy networks, but often in inductive, descriptive, and anecdotal ways. This article proposes a more robust method for the comparative analysis of policy networks, a method we term 'event-focused network analysis' (EFNA). The method assumes that networks are most clearly revealed in 'events'conferences, meetings, workshops, etc. Databases of participants at these events provide the foundation for social network analysis of the networks of which they are part. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has hundreds of such events annually that are connected to a myriad of policy issues, thus allowing cross-sectoral network comparisons. The article begins with a review and critique of current approaches to network analysis, explains the EFNA approach, and then applies it to anti-corruption networks centred in the OECD. The case study shows the promise of the method, particularly in being able to trace a wider range of actors than is typical, taking us beyond the 'usual suspects' in conventional transfer studies.
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