Print Email Facebook Twitter Exploring the Promise of Actor Analysis for Environmental Policy Analysis: Lessons from Four Cases in Water Resources Management Title Exploring the Promise of Actor Analysis for Environmental Policy Analysis: Lessons from Four Cases in Water Resources Management Author Hermans, L.M. Faculty Technology, Policy and Management Department Multi Actor Systems Date 2008-01-01 Abstract A persistent challenge for the development of well-informed and sound environmental policies is to improve the connection between environmental experts, decision makers, and other involved actors. Answers are sought in processes for social learning and adaptive co-management that engage experts, decision makers, and local actors in an interactive way of policy making. The preparation and organization of such interactive processes is usefully supported by actor analysis, which can help to identify the main actors to be involved in environmental policy making, to locate useful local knowledge, to identify potential conflicts, and to assess the feasibility of different policy measures. I explored the promise that actor analysis holds to support environmental experts in environmental policy analysis activities. I present and discuss the findings from four cases in water resources management. These findings are counterintuitive in that they suggest that environmental experts are more reluctant to use the insights provided by actor analysis than one would expect based on their frequently expressed desire to improve their connection with decision makers. Therefore, I conclude with a discussion of three mechanisms that might explain these findings, as well as their consequences for the future use of actor analysis in environmental policy analysis. Subject actor analysisenvironmental policypolicy analysisstakeholder analysiswater resourcesmanagement To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d5718ad5-fe1b-43fc-860b-e9e2fc3488fb Publisher Resilience Alliance ISSN 1708-3087 Source http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol13/iss1/art21/ Source Ecology and Society, 13 (1), 2008 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2008 The Author(s)Published under license by the Resilience Alliance Files PDF Hermans_2008.pdf 90.28 KB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:d5718ad5-fe1b-43fc-860b-e9e2fc3488fb/datastream/OBJ/view