Climate Change Subsystem Structure and Change: Network Mapping, Density and Centrality

Abstract

Policy capacity in web-based settings is largely the product of nodality, which provides centralized actors with enhanced opportunities to detect information and affect behavior. This paper examines four Canadian virtual policy networks (VPN) currently facing policy challenges associated with climate change adaptation including finance, infrastructure, transportation, and forestry. The four sectors each face specific types of challenges that will presumably influence government’s policy capacity to respond to climate change adaptation, which in turn will affect the state’s nodal positioning in the VPNs. At the macro level governing capacity will vary considerably among these sectors with some more able to affect social behavior and evidence-informed learning, while others will struggle to lead policy discourse and development. It is hypothesized that the Canadian federal government’s nodality, which is shaped by both reputational capital and information credibility, will also be influenced by the nature of actors involved and the degree to which the VPN is internationalized.