Assessing climate policy networks in
Nevada resource management
Orion Cuffe
Ph.D. Student
Department of Political Science
CS 765: Complex Networks
10/12/2011
The Problem
 What can be done to improve the climate change policy
"infrastructure" of the State of Nevada?
(NSF Project # NSF EPS-0814372)
Derek Kauneckis, Ph.D.
Dept. of Political Science, UNR
Componenet Co-Lead
The Problem
 What can be done to improve the climate change policy
"infrastructure" of the State of Nevada?
1.
What policy “infrastructure” exists now?
2.
How can it be improved?
Network analysis?
U.S. Senate Voting in 2007
Adam Perer, Ben Shneiderman, University of Maryland - HCIL
Climate Change: U.S. Groups in International Context
Richard Rogers, Govcom.org Foundation, Amsterdam
Political Science & Network Analysis
 “Connecting the Congress: A Study of Cosponsorship Networks.”
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Political Analysis
“Friends, Brokers, and Transitivity: Who Informs Whom in
Washington Politics?” The Journal of Politics
“Social Networks and Citizen Response to Legal Change.” American
Journal of Political Science
“Building Consensual Institutions: Networks and the National
Estuary Program.” American Journal of Political Science
“Policy Networks and Innovation Diffusion: The Case of State
Education Reforms.” Journal of Politics
Climate Change & Policy Networks
 Policy networks are effective at:
 increasing the sharing of knowledge between organizations
 facilitating the coordination of activities
 exploiting funding opportunities and sharing resources
 building trust and reciprocity among policymakers and stakeholders
(Agranoff 2007, Schneider et. al. 2003, Scholz et. al 2008)
 Impediments to leveraging power of networks:
 difficulty of creating new networks
 expanding existing ones in order to include relevant actors and stakeholders
 improving communication gaps and bottlenecks
(Considine 2009, Prell et. al. 2009)
Sources Cited
Agranoff, Robert (2007) Managing Within Networks. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Considine, Mark, Jenny M. Lewis and Damon Alexander (2009) Networks, Innovation and Public Policy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Prell, C., K. Hubacek, et al. (2009). "Stakeholder analysis and social network analysis in natural resource management." Society & Natural Resources 22: 501-518.
Schneider, Mark, John Scholz, Mark Lubell, Denisa Mindruta and Matthew Edwardsen (2003) “Building Consensual Institutions: Networks and the National Estuary Program.” American Journal
of Political Science 47 (1): 143-158.
Scholz, J., R. Berardo, et al. (2008). "Do networks solve collective action problems? Credibility, search, and collaboration." The Journal
of Politics 70(02): 393-406.
Climate Change & Policy Networks
 Climate change effects and consequences felt locally.
Bulkeley, Harriet and Michele M. Betsill (2003), Cities and Climate Change, Routledge, NY.
 Local governments are key to climate policy process.
Corfee-Merlot, Jan, Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, Michael G. Donovan, Ian Cochran, Alexis Robert and Pierre-Jonathan
Teasdale (2009), “Cities, Climate Change and Multilevel Governance”, OECD EnvironmentalWorking Papers N.14,
OECD publishing, OECD.
Data Source
Nevada Climate Change Survey of Public Organizations
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Local governments
Regional governments
Non-governmental organizations
Business associations
 “Do you regularly meet with other organizations to specifically
address climate change issues that affect your organization?”
 “If so, which groups do you regularly meet with?”
 “Are there any groups that you do not regularly meet with that you feel
are important to include in climate change planning?”
Kauneckis, Derek and Orion Cuffe. 2011. “State and Local Government Perspectives on Climate Change Priorities:
Results from a Survey in the State of Nevada.” Department of Political Science, University of Nevada, Reno.
Research Objectives
1.
Describe the existing climate policy networks.
2.
Use network metrics to find opportunities to improve
climate policy infrastructure.
Metrics Overview
• Density
• Density differential
• Centrality
• Clustering
• Resilience / Vulnerability
Metrics
 Describe the networks that exist.
 Within resource sectors.
 Across resource sectors.
 Assess the density of existing networks.
 Theory:
Increase in network density = increase in policy effectiveness.
 Describe theoretically improved network.
 Determine density differential between existing and improved
networks.
Existing Climate Policy Network in Nevada Water Management
Organizations with no ties in existing network:
Existing Network Density: 0.20
Improved Network:
Includes all Organizations Identified as Being Important to Climate Change Policy
Improved Network Density: 0.45
Metrics
 Assess the structure of the network:
 Within sectors vs. across sectors
 Clustering
 The roles of actors:
 Centrality
 Betweenness
 Brokers / innovators
 Identify likely obstacles to effectiveness:
 gaps
 bottlenecks
 resilience / vulnerability
Figure 3: Improved Network That Includes all Organizations Identified
Improved Network Density: 0.45
Shortcomings / Further Research
 Cannot fully know how effective a network is without knowing
what is being shared in the network?
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Knowledge
Resources
Funding opportunities
Trust / reciprocity
 Foundation for further research
 Workshops
 Interviews
 content analysis
Questions?
Comments?
Complaints?