Uncovering Relationships between Being Influential, Participating in Multiple Forums, and having Many Social Ties in Water Governance in Brazil

• Social network analysis has long been used to explore the networks actors build around collaborative institutional arrangements, and to uncover factors explaining why certain actors are more central than others. Being central in a social network is often treated as interchangeable with being influential. We critically investigate this common assumption by drawing inspiration from structuration theory. We use the management forum of the river Paraiba do Sul in Brazil as our empirical case study, and deploy social network analysis and structural equation modeling to disentangle influence ratings and social network centrality. We analyze direct and indirect factors that potentially explain centrality in information exchange and high influence ratings, and how they relate to each other. Our results show that centrality and influence are highly correlated, but also that they are not the same. We draw on interviews to suggest why some actors are influential without being central and vice versa.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

qualitative data

social structuration theory

structural equation modeling

water basin governance

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