Policymaking in an Information Wired Environment
ing about 60 % of the 1206 municipalities in 18 areas containing about 42 municipalities ; �����������������������������������������ing from the aggregation of 80 % of the municipalities in 29 areas , consisting of the average of 32 municipalities .
On using the UCINET software for social network analysis , Figure 3 shows the intensity of participation of the municipalities to the different spatial clusters , distinguishing also the province they belong to .
The network representation makes it possible to identify some spatial clusters which — depending on the constraints imposed by the morphology of the geographical area — reflect legacy features , inherited from the collaborations municipalities have had in the past for socioeconomic , functional , or planning reasons .
Let us show some details by examining Figure 3 more closely . The spatial aggregation at the top ( the light blue circle cluster ) represents the municipalities in the VCO province , a mountainous border area in the north-eastern part of Piedmont ; it reflects the existence of very tight connections among local authorities that are used to working together but have no ties with other local areas ( municipalities ) in Piedmont ( being close to the Lombardy region , in fact , they have stronger relationships with the local authorities of this region ). The spatial aggregations encircled in red ( including orange and violet nodes ) identify the Piedmont Wine Area consisting of a set of municipalities in the Cuneo and Asti provinces that run the wine business and have very close relationships .
3 . Complexity thinking and government – governance relationships
The two SNA applications , mentioned
above , are but examples that give evidence about the types of system relationships underlying a problem , enrich the perspectives of analysis , and can support more effective efforts for problem solving .
As for the ICT service delivery , the advantages were mainly analytics . The SNA application helped to elicit the fact that difficulties exist in aligning front office and back office activities necessary for delivering more effective ICT-based population services . It also made it apparent that these difficulties are greater for small municipalities , thus pointing out that technology changes cannot neglect the context in which they take place .
The SNA application to the thorny problem of municipality aggregation was more exploratory . It allowed us to experiment with a possibility to frame the issue by means of a different ( innovative ) perspective and prompt the development of complementary analytical approaches , in the GIS and MAS domains .
In both cases , the applications are also examples of how , building upon complexity thinking , the utilization of a cognitive mediator artifact ( in this case the SNA applications ) ( see Occelli 2010 ) would encroach upon a policy practice , thus increasing the intelligibility of the problem at hand ( Morin and Le Moigne 1999 ).
While in scientific debate the argument may appear trivial , in the policy practices it is almost unknown . Civil servants and decision makers in ( Piedmont ) government organizations are barely beginning to be aware of it , spurred lately by the uncertainties of an economy in turmoil .
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