Network Governance: Theories, Methods and Practices
Convenors (NIG and University of Roskilde, Denmark)
Professor Dr. Erik-Hans Klijn (Erasmus University of Rotterdam), dr. J. Koppenjan (Erasmus University of Rotterdam), Professor Eva Sørensen (University of Roskilde) and Professor Jacob Torfing (University of Roskilde)
Date and location
Saturday 6 April – Tuesday 9 April 2013 (before IRSPM conference)
Prague, Czech Republic
Content
Recent transformations of state and society have increased the importance of governance networks in formulating, determining and implementing public policy. Governance networks engage public, private and civil society actors at transnational, national, regional and local scales in shaping the future of our societies. Governance networks may fail, but network management can often mitigate the risk of failure and enable governance networks to achieve desired outcomes in terms of more effective and democratic governance and more innovation policy making.
Research into governance networks is developing rapidly all over the world. It is offering important opportunities for theoretical and methodological development, and for the generation of new knowledge with both academic and policy relevance. National and local differences demonstrate the need for theoretically and methodologically sound comparative research.
This course is offered jointly by the Netherlands School of Government (NIG) in coordination with University of Roskilde. It will bring together PhD students and leading academics from both networks, but also be open for PhD students from other European countries. It will create a European learning community in which PhD students will:
- Develop their analytical understanding of governance networks
- Strengthen their theoretical and methodological knowledge
- Test their ideas and conclusions through dialogue with leading researchers
- Contextualize their research in a comparative, multi-national setting
- Build a network of young researchers in the field
The course includes several types of activity:
- Interactive lectures which present the state of the art of the field (= lectures)
- Discussions between lecturers and PhD-students on core readings which focus on central questions and topics (= discussions)
- Application of theoretical skills in empirical analysis (= exercise)
- Presentations by PhD students of their own work (= PhD presentations)
Credits
The course accounts for 3 credits (120 hours; 4 ECTS), which includes the writing of a paper and preparing the literature.
