The Power of Narrative in Regional Governance Networks for Implementing the EU’s Habitat Directive

This paper focuses on understanding social network formation in collaborative environmental governance by integrating narrative and network research. Concepts and methods from both narrative and network studies are used to develop a conceptual basis that takes sufficient account of the network dynamics and the role of the deeper meanings beneath social linkages. Hypotheses are derived and tested using empirical data from a case study in Lower Saxony, Germany. Narratives constitute not only a phenomenon to observe and to study empirically, but function as a methodological tool to grasp the unfolding, ongoing process of network formation. Based on cultural theoretic understanding, we conceptualize narratives as cultural artefacts that are always in the process of construction, while at the same time they are emerging cultural products that are produced and reproduced by individual narration. Hence, narratives emerge from narrations, which are subjectively constructed lived experiences or imagined realities of individuals that help them to create meaning. Actors in political processes typically contest each other and narrations are deliberately deployed in the competition over meaning, authority and legitimation. We assume that the narrations of the actors influences their social relations with each other and, ultimately, shapes the structural phenotype of the governance network. Moreover, we assume that the relational structure between members of a network and the narrations they tell co-produce narratives in a political network. Finally, we posit that narratives and group dynamics influence the subjective functioning of a network. On this basis, we present a first set of specific hypotheses aimed at systematically investigating mechanisms between narratives and networks. In order to test our assumptions, we conducted a case study of two regional networks in Osnabrück – a city in the German federal state Lower Saxony – that have the task to accompany the implementation of the EU Habitat Directive in several locations in the region and to be engaged in the design of Natura 2000 management plans. The networks comprise 36 actors from agriculture and forestry, water maintenance, hunting and nature conservation and are divided by a thematic focus on forest areas and watercourses. Data is collected using a mixed-methods approach that unites narrative and social network data collection. Open narrative interviews were conducted with members to obtain information about the actors’ subjective perspective on the network formation and dynamics based on their experience. Quantitative social network data for the type, frequency and perceived quality of interaction between actors is collected from all members with a structured survey. Qualitative data is analysed using basic principles from narrative analysis, which enables us to identify the individual narrations. A qualitative content analysis generates categories of narratives based on the individual narrations. Hypotheses on the relationship between social structure, narrations and narratives is assessed using Exponential Random Graph Modelling. We will present the results of this case study and end with a brief discussion of how a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis can be used in systematic assessments of narrative-network dynamics.