Social Network Analysis of Multi-level Linkages: A Swedish Case Study on Northern Forest-Based Sectors

Abstract

Forest use in Northern Sweden is being influenced both by global trends and local situations. This results in interactions between numerous groups that may impact local forest governance. Social network analysis can here provide insight into the total pattern of positive, negative, and cross-level interactions within user group community structure (within and among groups). This study analyses interactions within selected renewable resource sectors in two northern Swedish municipalities, both with regard to whether they are positive, neutral, or negative, as well as with regard to how local actors relate to actors across levels, e.g., with regional, national, and international actors. The study illustrates that many interactions both within and outside a given sector are seen as neutral or positive, and that considerable interaction and impact are defined as national and in some cases even international. It also indicates that the impact of Sweden’s only existing Model Forest may to some extent constitute a bridge between different sectors and levels, in comparison with the interactions between sectors in a municipality where such a cooperation mechanism does not exist.

Status and Trends in Forest Environment Transfer Tax and Information Interface between Prefectures and Municipalities: Multi-Level Governance of Forest Management in 47 Japanese Prefectures

“…Axelsson et al [29] analyzed social learning in the network of multi-level governance in a regional sustainable development process, though a problem remained about the formalization of social learning. Keskitalo et al [30] analyzed the attitudes of actors against the other actors in the situation of multi-governance in a forest region and claimed the importance of bridging actors in natural resource management. Despite the emergence of multi-level governance in the EU, interest groups related to German forests were mostly in the process of adapting multi-level governance, adhering to policymaking at the national or lower levels where they had been active.…”

“…As a result, the assessment of the policy measures remained nebulous. If this was the result of the current policy implementation, governments could improve the policies and their implementations by introducing an active agenda of social learning, in addition to the identification of active coordinators in Japan's multi-level forest governance [29,30].…”

“Generality of mis-fit”? The real-life difficulty of matching scales in an interconnected world

“…Today, reindeer husbandry is practised by a relatively small number of herders representing a minority of the Saami population; in Sweden by some 2000–2500 individuals. On a national level, compared with other land uses in these areas, the livelihood thus provides negligible economic income: forestry, in northern Sweden practised largely on the same grounds, provides some 3 % of GDP or 10 % of national Swedish export value also with some benefit to the small-scale, individual, forest owners who own a large proportion of Swedish forest (Keskitalo 2008b ; Keskitalo et al 2014 ). Potentially as a result, very limited changes in power distribution between the different land uses in the case of forestry and reindeer husbandry have taken place over time (Keskitalo 2008a ).…”

Towards Holistic Governance of China’s E-Waste Recycling: Evolution of Networked Policies

“…For example, Ingram et al claimed that networked analysis methods are general and flexible in recognizing and understanding the multiple values of environmental governance [ 23 ]. Keskitalo et al pointed out that social network analysis can provide insight into multiple interaction patterns between organizations and within organizations [ 24 ]. Wong drew on the policy network approach to provide an interpretation framework for e-waste governance in Hong Kong and mainland of China, identifying the major barriers to effective cross-border e-waste control and prevention [ 25 ].…”