Publication

This publication considers the extent to which networks offer a suitable concept for the theorization of informal processes of economic regulation and institutional change. It challenges both essentialist and critical attitudes to networks through an examination of the positive and negative effects of network governance in contemporary societies. The analysis focuses on three broad principles of non-state organization, namely culture, agency and power, and their role in shaping processes of economic and political governance. The paper demonstrates that effective theorization of informal regulatory processes requires attention to the specific interaction of these three principles.