Methods for Network Governance Research: an Introduction

Abstract

This book discusses the reflections about and choices of methodology in a research project on network governance completed in 2005.¹ It is a challenging task to discuss how a research process evolves and how decisions about research methods are made. Although the process is crucial for research results, it mostly remains an untold story. This is the case both within the social sciences in general and in network governance research in particular. When reporting their results obtained from empirical research, researchers often cover methodological issues only briefly in introductions, in footnotes or in technical appendices. Mostly, the purpose is to justify the value of the findings in terms of reliability, validity or representativity. More in-depth discussions are mostly reserved for the overwhelming and thorough literature on methodology in which the focus is on how research processes should ideally be and on how to apply specific research methods in general.