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ABSTRACT
Polycentric governance systems seek to solve environmental challenges through the involvement of diverse actors at different decision-making levels. However, previous studies did not confirm the positive performance of polycentric governance in social interactions with certainty. Therefore, the aim of the study was to identify the capacity and performance of current actors and units to understand their impact on the performance of polycentric governance systems perspective as a whole. For this purpose, this study investigated the theory of polycentric governance systems on a large scale in Semnan province of Iran. The social network analysis (SNA) and its 12 indices were used as a methodology of research, including 352 heterogeneous actors with different capacities, were interviewed and studied. The results showed that the power and leadership of key actors play an effective role in the stability and development of polycentric governance systems. The power sharing between decision-making centers is implemented through the interlevel communication of climate entrepreneurs. The comparison of performances showed that public management could not meet the leadership criteria as well as private actors. The final results showed that the total performance of the polycentric governance system of environment was positive and influenced by the performance of pioneer NGOs and climate entrepreneurs.
Acknowledgements
This paper is an extract from a student's master's thesis that was done at Tarbiat Modares University. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Tarbiat Modares University (TMU). Meanwhile, we would like to thank all the respondents who participated in the workshops, field discussions, and interviews. We also thank the anonymous referees for their constructive comments on the original draft of this article who contributed to editing this article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Iman Islami
Dr. Iman Islami is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Natural Resources, Tarbiat Modares University (TMU), Noor, Iran. His research focuses on the Social-Ecological Systems, especially in environmental development and sustainability, Social Networks Analysis (SNA), Natural Resources Management, participation and governance, resilience and local communities issues. He has also led several large-scale research or implementation projects, focusing on the management of human issues, social monitoring and evaluation, capacity building and empowerment of rural and local settlements in the field of natural resources and environment.
Fatemeh Ghanbari
Mrs. Fatemeh Ghanbari is a senior expert in rangeland management who has completed her M.Sc. thesis under the supervision of Dr. Iman Islami and the scientific advice of Dr. Hossein Azadi in the field of collaborative governance evaluation focusing on the analysis of social networks of Sustainable Management of Land and Water Resources in Hable Rood Basin Iran. The current article is derived from a part of her research thesis results.
Hossein Azadi
Dr. Hossein Azadi is a senior faculty staff at the Department of Geography at Ghent University. During his academic career, he applied a variety of mixed methods on socio-economic impact assessments of agroenvironmental development projects with a focus on “land use policy” and “human geography”. On these topics, he has published widely (+375 Web-of-Science journal articles) and his publications already received more than 3500 citations with h-index of 48 (Google Scholar).