Networks and Power: Why Networks are Hierarchical Not Flat and What Can Be Done About It
| Published date | 01 May 2016 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12270 |
| Author | Moira V. Faul |
| Date | 01 May 2016 |
Networks and Power: Why Networks are
Hierarchical Not Flat and What Can Be Done
About It
Moira V. Faul
University of Cambridge
Abstract
Many scholars, policy makers and practitioners associate new, networked forms of collaboration and governance with pos-
itive attributes such as speed, flexibility, adaptability and ‘flatness’. This article contrasts the assumptions that networks
essentially moderate external asymmetries of power with the network theoretical view that networks may amplify existing
hierarchies. The case study network explored supports the network theoretical view that existing power relations may be
increased when a multistakeholder partnership network is established. The use of Social Network Analysis facilitates the
comparison of the structures and relationships into which global policy actors are organised (the formal network) with
the relationships and relational structures into which they choose to organise themselves (informal network). In the con-
clusions, I introduce the practice of network rewiring that could overcome the network mechanisms that amplify existing
power relations. Further research is required that adds more case study evidence in order to raise (and begin to answer)
questions that will give a wider view of the social structuring of power in partnership networks in international develop-
ment, such as those referred to in the recently-adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Policy Implications
•Establishing a formal network does not necessarily moderate existing asymmetries of power. Networks may amplify dispar-
ities of power that existed prior to their establishment.
•In this case of global development aid, discursively reframing relationships between ‘donor’and ‘recipient’as partnerships
may be necessary to transform aid relations, but it is not sufficient.
•To overcome the network mechanisms that maintain hierarchy, network actors who are perceived to be more powerful
need to rewire their networks.
•Network analyses such as this can support the implementation of systems approaches to researching complex social pol-
icy issues.
Do networks moderate asymmetries of power?
Theorisations abound of networks as essentially non-hierar-
chical structures (Finnemore and Sikkink, 1998; Reinicke,
1999; Slaughter, 2004). Yet alternative, network theoretical,
research proposes that networks at best reflect, if not aug-
ment, existing asymmetries of power (Christopoulos, 2008;
Knoke and Kuklinski, 1982; Scott, 2000). This article offers an
empirical investigation of theories of the essentially ‘flat’nat-
ure of networks. I argue that networks may amplify –rather
than moderate –existing hierarchies of power. The identifica-
tion of the network mechanisms that predispose informal
relational structures towards asymmetries of power (ho-
mophily and preferential ties) allows the elaboration of a
strategy towards reducing power asymmetries: network rewir-
ing. This study contributes to an emerging body of literature
that applies network concepts and tools to the study of inter-
national relations (Goddard, 2009; Hafner-Burton et al., 2009;
Kahler, 2009b; Stovel and Shaw, 2011; Ward et al., 2011).
The empirical section analyses a global education net-
work, which claims to bring together donors (international
financial institutions (IFIs) and states), recipient governments,
civil society and the private sector in ‘partnership’through a
formal network that professes to break down existing hierar-
chies of power. It examines the relative distribution of
power among members of an international organisation,
comparing the formal relational structures into which they
are organised with the informal relational structures into
which they organise themselves. This comparison of formal
and informal networks reveals that this organisation,
although formally designed to moderate inequalities of
power, is in practice riven with hierarchy.
Context and case
Traditional conceptualisations of aid relations as hierarchical
financial relations based on a donor–recipient dichotomy
have come to be viewed as illegitimate and ineffective ways
Global Policy (2016) 7:2 doi: 10.1111/1758-5899.12270 ©2015 University of Durham and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Global Policy Volume 7 . Issue 2 . May 2016 185
Research Article
To continue reading
Request your trial