Mapping Policy Actors Using Social Network Analysis on Integrated Urban Farming Program in Bandung City

Abstract

This study aimed to produce a network structure in Integrated Urban Farming Program in Bandung City to map the involved policy actors to realize a food-smart city. In this study, a mixed method was used with an exploratory sequential strategy involving policy actors from the government, private sector, academia, community, and mass media. To obtain a network structure in Integrated Urban Farming toward determining the most important actors, the Social Network Analysis (SNA) approach was also employed through the Gephi application. From this context, the structure emphasized four dimensions, namely Degree, Betweenness, Closeness, and Eigenvector Centralities. The results showed that the actor with the most connections (degree of centrality) and best communication control (betweenness centrality) is Parahyangan Catholic University (academic). At the same time, the actor that plays the most important role (eigenvector) is at the lower level of the government’s Sub-District and Urban Village. This study is useful for explaining the importance of the position of actors in the urban farming policy network, which is the key to the success of a program.