Values Matter: The Role of Key Nodes of Social Networks in an Environmental Governance Case from Taiwan

Abstract

Social networks and related social processes play a critical role in natural resources and environmental governance. In this paper, an environmental governance case is analyzed from a social network perspective. We explore how social networks of proponents for and opponents against environmental regulations are formed and developed and how these social networks facilitate or hinder environmental regulations in different periods. The results reveal that government leaders with political power, the key node of the social network, can connect specific networks with their value orientation and can therefore influence the structure and development of networks, which significantly affect subsequent policy formation and governance results. Social networks affect and are affected by the processes and results of environmental governance. Consequently, actors in key positions and value orientations of the community to which they belong to play a critical role; this finding has rarely been discussed in past analyses of social networks.