Deploying governance networks for societal challenges

Abstract

Governments are increasingly engaging private sector organizations, civil society and citizens to tackle complex policy challenges through some forms of networked governance arrangements. These governance networks which in general facilitate flexibility, speed and innovation in government, when compared with traditional governance forms, are necessary to meaningfully govern smart societies characterised by many programs spanning policy domains and levels of governments. This article presents a conceptual framework for governance networks and applies the framework to describe and analyse six case studies presented as part of the Track on "Governing through Networks" of the International Conference on the Theory and Practice of Electronic Governance (ICEGOV2013) Conference. Insights from the analysis of these cases somewhat suggest that: 1) governance networks are still largely steered by government; 2) efficacy of governance networks is contingent on citizen's inclusion in the governance networks; and 3) mobile social media platforms could constitute a key infrastructure for enabling citizen participation in these governance networks. Important policy and research challenges in this domain include how to effectively motivate citizen participation in these networks and align the divergent views of the different actors collaborating in the network.

Assessing the risks of “infodemics” in response to COVID-19 epidemics

“…In large, complex societies, an important mediator of large-scale cooperation is communication 6 , which may be crucial to coordinate individual perceptions and behaviors in the pursuit of the common interest 7 . The recent explosion of publicly shared, decentralized information production that characterizes digital societies 8 and in particular social media activity 9 provides an exceptional laboratory for the observation and the study of these complex social dynamics 10 , and potentially functions as a very powerful resource to enact effective, pro-social cooperation and coordination in large-scale crises 11 . Global pandemics are certainly an instance of such crises, and the current outbreak of COVID-19 may therefore be thought of as a natural experiment to observe social responses to a major threat that may potentially escalate to catastrophic levels, and has already managed to seriously affect levels of economic activity, and radically alter human social behaviors across the globe.…”

La gobernanza ambiental: el estudio del capital social en las Áreas Naturales Protegidas

“…La transformación institucional se encuentra estrechamente ligada a procesos como la gobernanza, entendida no solo como un cambio en el sentido del gobierno sino como un proceso de participación que surge de "abajo hacia arriba" (Sánchez, Gallardo & Ceña, 2014;Ojo & Mellouli, 2016), en el cual intervienen los gobiernos en sus distintos niveles, pero también otras partes interesadas que pertenecen a la sociedad civil.…”

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