*New Article* The social web of water governance - using SNA

We have just published a new article on the social network of water governance. Read press release at Stockholm Resilience Centre - click here.

Stein, C, Ernstson H. and Barron J. 2011. A social network approach to analyzing water governance: The case of the Mkindo catchment, Tanzania. J. Phys. Chem. Earth (2011), doi:10.1016/j.pce.2011.07.083

In a new study in Journal Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, centre researchers Christian Stein, Henrik Ernstson and Jennie Barron, used social network analysis to map out and analyze how social networks affect the governance of water resources.

Their findings raised considerable interest from participants at the 11th WaterNet symposium, which took place 27-29 October 2010 in Zimbabwe. WaterNet is a regional capacity building and research program on Integrated Water Resource Management in Eastern and Southern Africa.

Beyond the formal structures

Much research has been done on trying to reveal how different policies emphasizing the state, markets or users groups affect water resources governance. However, a lot of this research tends to focus on formal administrative structures and policies, which may have little to do with the complex everyday interaction between natural resource managers and users.

Researchers have argued that social networks can be more important than formal institutions. However, social networks have only quite recently been studied in the field of natural resources governance.