The Role of Networks in Local Governance

In contemporary times complexity is a characteristic of local governance, in particular as a result of the severe problems which are limiting the capacity of public sector to answer social needs, produce and deliver services, etc. The organizational answer that local governance is producing in order to assure a new effectiveness to its actions is the creation of the so-called governance networks. Such a concept defines an organizational innovation that implies for public and private actors both challenges and opportunities. Which are the conditions that characterize these networks? And why they can result efficient despite such internal differences? The aim of the chapter is to identify the main features that characterizes these networks, which are their goals in the broader framework of the occurring changes to local governance trying to sketch which is their role and the opportunities connected to this organizational innovation for public administration and the implications for the connection between p.a. and social actors.