Search

Theories of reflexive governance are closely linked with the claim that more traditional modes of coordination have been replaced by networked structures, allowing reflexivity to emerge and reflexive learning to function as a steering mechanism in rapidly changing policy contexts. This paper explores this connection between reflexivity, governance, learning and networks in societal transitions, focusing particularly on the claim that networks will deliver reflexive learning. Using network theories from both policy networks and network governance and a case study of the Canadian agricultural biotechnology (agbiotech) policy network, it suggests that the kind of learning produced in networks will be a function of network structure. In particular, higher order reflexive learning will be compromised by the inevitability of the political struggle for nodality or central place in networks and the ensuing distribution of opportunities for bridging and bonding activities. Networks such as the Canadian agbiotech policy network that may promote learning but not necessarily reflexive learning are increasingly disadvantaged in contemporary policy settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constitutional and institutional legacies were combined to create a very decentralized forest policy sector in Canada. Where coherent policy requires a national response-as is the case with adaptation to climate change-the critical challenge is to locate the relevant decentralized policy capacity and steer it toward meeting national objectives. While there is some evidence that significant policy capacity exists in provincial forest and resource management departments, climate change adaptation has led to an expansion of departmental mandates that is not being addressed by better coordination of the available policy capacity. The relevant federal agencies are not well represented in information networks and forest policy workers report lower levels of internal and external networking than workers in related policy subsectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the infrastructure policy sector's capacity to respond to climate change adaptation through an analysis of the Canadian case. It includes a three-level examination of capacity: at the macro level through a virtual policy network analysis; at the meso level through examination of the lead department's evolving mandate and resources; and at the micro level through analysis of survey data related to departmental workers policy tasks and attitudes. Four hypotheses across these three levels are set out and tested at the national and subnational levels. Together, the findings suggest that the policy capacity in the Canadian infrastructure sector will be unable to meet the demands placed upon the sector to respond to the increasing challenges of climate change adaptation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When pursuing change, legacies of policy goals and instruments from an established paradigm often present constraints on fully embracing a newer paradigm, resulting in the layering of new policy goals and instruments on top of the existing base. In this article, we investigate the effect of layered paradigms on policy capacity at three different levels of policy making in the Canadian transportation sector. Using analysis of government publications and budget data, virtual policy network analysis, quantitative analysis of data from a survey of Canadian policy analysts, and direct interviews with policy managers in two provinces, we demonstrate how this layering of legacy goals (and consequent policy incapacity) is occurring at the macro, meso, and micro levels of policy making. We conclude that the layering of a new policy paradigm for climate change on top of the established paradigm for transportation development constrains policy capacity in this subsystem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public sector websites are heavily invested in influencing policy outcomes through information provisioning and dissemination. Traditionally e-government research has focused on the internal functions of e-government studying service delivery, horizontal information processing integration and levels of implementation maturity. This paper shifts the analytical focus to external-facing e-government to consider the macro presentation of state-sponsored sites on the Web. To evaluate the external face of Canadian e-government this project measures the web-based impact of public sector websites in virtual policy networks. Virtual policy networks are web-based issues networks containing content on a specific policy topic and connected through hyperlinks. It is argued that government's online nodality in these networks is an indicator of public sector websites' authority and influence on the Web. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is a significant body of literature assessing the influence of think tanks; however, there has been relatively little research on the online impact of think tanks' research activity. Differentiating the popularity of a policy think tank from its policy relevance is an important consideration in evaluating the impact of policy institutes on the Web. This study measures the perceived reliability of information as defined by web-based users. To measure the impact of think tanks' web-based popularity and policy relevance, think tank participation in five separate policy domains including social policy, equalization, climate change, clean energy, and peacemaking/peace building is studied using hyperlink analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internet, operating as a technologically embedded laboratory of human activity, provides social scientists with a new set of analytical tools by which to test and replicate models of social and political behaviour, with data extrapolated from the regularities of online activity, organization and information exchange. This research note demonstrates that virtual policy networks, arrangements of public interaction between mutually supporting actors that form around policy activities, exist on the Web. In addition, the note considers whether or not Canadian virtual policy networks are mimicking their respective national policy communities through the application of a methodological approach referred to as link structure analysis. Four sectorally based networks, including Aboriginal policy, agriculture, banking and women-centred policy, are analyzed to assess the extent of virtual policy networks' replication of real world policy dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]