Governance, knowledge and policy networks in Strategic Environmental Assessment

In this chapter of the book, which is a collection of contributions related to the EU FP6 Project GFORS, the authors introduce and discuss policy network analysis, trying to understand its possible use and to relate its main theoretical and methodological assumptions to the Gfors framework, using three examples from SEA cases in the UK, in Norway and in Italy. Within the Gfors framework the analysis of governance arrangements is a crucial interpretative task towards the understanding of the interplay with knowledge forms and its effects in terms of sustainability. In order to fully grasp the complexity of governance arrangements in real life situations, the analysis of action arenas is a necessary step, as is the analysis of the system of relationships among (potentially) large numbers of actors. In order to be able to describe these relationships, the authors propose to test the network metaphor, since long acquired in social sciences. We will therefore try to understand how the policy network concept can enable us to identify action arenas, focusing our attention on how the relationship between actor and arena can be conceptualised; we will finally propose some conclusions about the effective ability of this concept to capture the points under question.