Networks as Interactions and Structures

Abstract

The previous chapter showed the importance of innovation norms and procedures in our city governments, and provided some clues on local innovation culture and variations across roles and positions. To better understand the way governments create innovations we now shift our attention to the role played by a certain class of objects called embedded resources. Such resources are produced within the work-based social networks of politicians, bureaucrats and key community leaders. There is a long tradition in innovation research which shows that these forms of connectedness and exchange inside networks shape the way ideas are communicated and influence the way new products and methods are distributed. Much of this research points to the critical role which networks play in the diffusion of innovation. Rogers (1995:5) provides the classic formulation of this approach; ‘Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among members of a social system’.