Social Network Analysis as Regional Governance Instrument : Regional Policy Intelligence in the face of the Network-regions

The importance of networking for regional development is meanwhile beyond controversy. Hence, political interest in fostering network activities in the regions is high. This asks at the same time for new ways of regional governance and concurrently for additional strategic in-telligence for regional decision-makers. But so far the discussions missed the challenging question, which information about regional networks is relevant for successful regional go-vernance processes and how it might be achieved.
Social Network Analyses (SNA) seem to be an ideal instrument for revealing the information needed. So far they have been used manifold for visualizing interactions between corporative actors in single networks. The link to regional issues was rarely made, the regional context mostly left aside. For governance processes a step further is necessary: the regional environ-ment of the networks as well as their interplay with other (cooperative) activities at the re-gional level has to be explicitly taken into consideration.
With its comprehensive visualisation of cooperative activities the SNA makes an important contribution to the understanding of regional situations. It allows decision makers to identify strategic starting points for their interventions. However, the impact of SNA must not be overestimated. It may support regional governance processes effectively, but therefore it must be used correctly and be adequately incorporated in the whole governance setting.