Governance, networks and social capital in the plenary of the Brazilian National Council on Water Resources

Abstract

The current paper aims to analyze the ability of the Plenary of the National Water Resources Council to constitute itself as a water governance arena, by mobilizing networks and social capital to achieve the goals of the National Water Resources Policy. According to the current study, the social network is central to the mobilization of social capital, because its structure can provide the necessary conditions to access and use the existing resources. Social Network Analysis (SNA) was used to answer the following questions: 1) what are the available network resources?; 2) what is the structure of the network and the accessibility to these resources?; 3) how does the network contribute to the achievement of the Policy goals? Although it has a dense and diverse network of actors, important factors in the formation of social capital, the Council little contributes to achieve the Policy goals. The current study suggests that flexible institutional arrangements, which networks of actors mobilize around specific problems, may be more effective for water governance in Brazil.