Network governance and reflexivity in fisheries management: a case study of Northern Ireland

Abstract

Network governance arrangements, wherein resource users are empowered, are vital for ocean sustainability. These arrangements are critical to implementing innovative practices, particularly those developed to address the negative impacts of top-down management. The adoption of networked governance can foster resource management capacity and equitable decision-making. Research has focused on social ties within networks but has provided a somewhat limited account of how networks evolve to instil novel practices. To implement new practices, networks must engage in reflexive governance. Reflexivity is underpinned by actors’ receptivity to change and network learning. Actors’ receptivity to change relates to whether they acknowledge past failures and how novel management ideas become accepted. Network learning is the degree of change instigated by actors’ reflexive processes. Drawing on the receptivity and network learning theories, and informed by semi-structured interviews, an assessment was conducted on how a fisheries management network in Northern Ireland has reflexively evolved to implement new practices. Findings illustrate that the network has reflexively redesigned how they collaborate, share knowledge, and contribute to policymaking. Demonstrating single– and double-loop learning, these developments have been derived from reflections on the failure of past processes and the instigation of more co-creative processes that benefit all network actors.