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Australian Journal of Political Science,Vol. 37, No. 3, pp. 399416

Putting People Back into Networks

R. A. W. RHODES

Grifth University and University of Newcastle upon Tyne

This article argues that political scientists should spend more time observing

policy networks, using ethnographic tools to capture the meaning of everyday

activities. The rst section reviews briey the literature on policy networks,

arguing for an ethnographic approach. To show how individual actors constructnetworks, the second section looks at the experience of consumers, managers

and permanent secretaries of living and working in networks. The nal section

comments on what the eldwork tells us about both network theory and

ethnographic methods.

Introduction

It is a commonplace of the literature on policy networks to assert that where yosit determines what you see. This article challenges that view, arguing that yocannot read off beliefs and preferences from institutiona l position. The articdevelops the argument by describing the experiences of consumers, managers anpermanent secretaries of living and working in networks. I make one key recommendation: that we put people back into networks by employing an ethnographapproach. I agree with Fenno (1990, 128) that not enough political scientists apresently engaged in observation and I adapt his stricture to analysing networkThe article has three sections. The rst section reviews briey the literature o

policy networks, arguing for an ethnographic approach. The second section presenmy factions or anonymous, disguised eldwork. The nal section comments owhat the eldwork tells us about both network theory and ethnographic method

The Constructivist Turn

In the 1990s there was a proliferation of literature on policy networks. It comes several guises (and for a more extensive review see Rhodes 1999, ch. 8). Som

focus on networks as structures for interest intermediation while others analynetwork steering or governance (see Borzel 1998). There are also debates abo

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400 R. A. W. RHODES

how to explain the differences in and between networks. The contenders includpower-dependence bargaining models (Rhodes 1988), rational choice (Dowdin1995, 2001), sociological network analysis (Laumann and Knoke 1987) and dialectic approach (Marsh and Smith 2000).1 However, to place the eldworeported in this article in context, I review the strengths and weaknesses of th

policy networks literature from a constructivist standpoint.2First, the social science approach adopts a positivis t epistemology, treatin

networks as social structures from which we can read off the beliefs, interests anactions of individuals. The networks to which individuals belong allegedly establithe content of their beliefs and interests. A constructivis t approach, in contrasregards networks as enacted by individuals. The beliefs and actions of individuaare not determined by their objective position in an organisation or networRather, their beliefs and actions construct the nature of the organisation or networA constructivist approach, therefore, encourages us to decentre networks; that is,

explore the ways in which they are made and remade through the activities particular individuals. Any such change of direction in studying networks will leaus to the tools of political ethnography. As researchers, we write constructionabout how other people construct the world; we produce thick descriptions onetworks (Geertz 1973, ch. 1).

Second, current explanations of network changes rely on exogenous, not endognous, causes. Thus, Marsh and Rhodes (1992, 261) argue that networks crearoutines for policy making, and change is incremental. They identify four broacategories of change: economic, ideological, knowledge and institutional , and aare external to the network. Because a constructivist approach decentres networkby exploring how individual actors enact them, it encourages us to look for thorigins of change in the contingent responses of individuals to new ideas anproblems. By focusing on the individuals responses to new ideas and problemchange is built into the heart of networks. It is endogenous because it stems froindividuals confronting new beliefs and responding to the actions of others.

Third, the network literature is characterised by typologies.3 A constructiviapproach does not treat network dimensions and characteristics as given. It probably a commonplace observation that even simple objects are constructed part by our view of the world. When we turn our attention to complex politicobjects, the notion that they are given to us as brute facts in not tenable. The factabout networks are not given but constructed by individuals in the stories the

1 On policy networks in Britain, see Dowding (1995, 2001), Frances (1991), Hindmoor (1998), Jord(1990), Jordan, Maloney and McLaughlin (1994), LeGales and Thatcher (1995), Marsh (1998, ch. 1Marsh and Smith (2000) and Rhodes (1988, 1990, 1997, chs 1 2, 1999, ch. 8). For the rest of Europ

see Borzel (1998), Bogason and Toonen (1998), Blom-Hansen (1997), Jordan and Schubert (1992), Marand Mayntz (1991), Kenis and Schneider (1991) and Scharpf (1997).2 My approach to the constructivist turn in political science is set out in my work with Mark Bevir: s

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My approach to the constructivist turn in political science is set out in my work with Mark Bevir: s

PUTTING PEOPLE BACK INTO NETWORKS 40

hand down to one another. The study of networks, therefore, is inextricably bounup with interpreting the narratives on which they are based.

The nal characteristic of the network literature is that it is practical, seeking improve network management.4 The social science model of networks treats theas given factsas if they are cars and the researcher is the car mechanic, ndin

the right tool to effect repairs. A constructivist approach posits that networkcannot be understood apart from traditions. The individuals whose beliefs, interesand actions constitute a network necessarily acquire the relevant interests anbeliefs against the background of traditions. A tradition is a set of understandingsomeone receives during socialisation. For example, new recruits to a network adthe traditions of that network to their existing sets of beliefs. Traditions oninuence, they do not determine, the nature of individual beliefs and actionTraditions are the products of individual agency because individual s change thbeliefs and practices they inherit (for a more detailed account, see Bevir 1999) Th

idea of tradition differs, therefore, from political scientists who associate the terwith customary, unquestioned ways of behaving (Oakeshott [1962] 1991, 121289) or with the entrenched folklore of pre-modern societies. There is, thereforno essentialist account of a network because individuals inherit, interpret and hanon distinct and distinctive stories of what goes on around here. So there can bno single tool kit for managing them. A constructivist approach claims thpractitioners learn by telling, listening to and comparing stories.

These four criticisms explain why I now argue for a constructivis t approacBecause the existing literature reads off beliefs from institutional positions, focuseon typologies and seeks to improve network management, it cannot explain hoand why networks change.5 To do that, we must develop decentred accounts thexplore how individuals construct networks against a backcloth of traditions. Ocourse, big claims are often made for new theoretical directions in political sciencWhether the new direction is persuasive depends on the pay-offon whether delivers decent research outcomes. In the remainder of this article, I focus on twquestions: how do you do decentred research and what do we learn from it? In thnext section I present three factions, all of which take the individual actoraccount of a network as the basic building block of research. I try to show hoconsumers, managers and senior ofcials have distinct and distinctive experienceof living and working in networks. In the nal section, I comment on what we calearn from such actor-centred research.

The Argument Illustrated

In this article, the eldwork is based on elite interviewing and accounts written bparticipants but my argument covers all forms of participant and non-participan

4 See for example Prime Minister and Minister for the Cabinet Ofce (1999) Ferlie and Pettigre

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See for example Prime Minister and Minister for the Cabinet Ofce (1999) Ferlie and Pettigre

402 R. A. W. RHODES

observation. Ethnography comes in many guises.6 The factions are based on thles of a local authority in Northern England. The social workers involved wrothem. After discussing the draft with the social workers, I edited them. They theagreed to the version produced below. All names have been changed to protect thanonymity of both customers7 and local authority employees. The elite interview

are taken from a long-running project on British central government that involvein-depth interviews with a dozen permanent secretaries. So far, I have had thresemi-structured interviews, each lasting two hours, with each permanent secretarHere I use an extract from one such interview. All quotes were endorsed by thdepartmental secretary before publication. Whether attributed to a named individuor not, the published text was the product of negotiations between the permanensecretary and me. The reader hears the voice of the permanent secretary lterethrough my selection of extracts and the subsequent negotiations. The extract is aagreed construction of how the permanent secretary saw his world.

Factions

Customers: seems like a railway station

Case 1. Mr and Mrs R live in a two-bedroom house in the suburbs of a town wia populatio n of some 200,000. Mr R is 83 years old, and wheelchair bounfollowing a stroke six months ago. Mrs R is 79 years old, still active mentally anphysically but not strong enough to help with her husbands personal care withou

help from one other person.For the past six months they have had a care assistant from a private agency

help Mr R with getting up, toileting, washing and dressing every morning. A locauthority Home Help calls at lunch to help with toileting, and personal care taskif necessary. The Home Help also calls twice weekly to do shopping, as Mrs cant leave Mr R because he gets distressed when left on his own. Mr R hascatheter that is managed by his wife and checked by a Community Nurse twicweekly. Three nights a week (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) a private agency caassistant calls to help Mr R to go to bed. The councils Home Help service assison the four remaining evenings a week. The evening call can take place any timfrom 7.00 pm to 9.00 pm, depending on daily demand on staff. The local authoricare manager arranged and purchased the private agency.

Mr and Mrs R moved their double bed into the lounge because the bathroom downstairs at the back of the kitchen and Mr R cannot get upstairs. They live anentertain in their small kitchen. Mr R cannot get out without being lifted becausthere are three steep steps at the front and at the back of the house that make difcult to install a ramp.

To make themselves more comfortable, their care manager suggested moving a new comfortable sheltered housing complex in the centre of town. They have a

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offer of a one-bedroom at with a kitchen and living room on the rst oor. Therare lifts. There is a communal room with regular activities.

Mr R would be able to move freely around the at and use the kitchen, as thunits are wheelchair height. He would be able to use the lift and attend the activitieat the communal room. He would need assistance at home for personal care. M

R would be able to get out to do some shopping while her husband is joining ithe communal activities. She would not be so isolated as she would be able to join the communal activities with her husband.

Mr R will not consider looking at the at until he knows he can have the samcarer from a private agency who calls every morning. This will not be possibbecause his care arrangements will be provided by different locally based staff. Hwife needs help to explain this. The Home Care Manager responsible for the nearea visits the couple to reassure Mr R that he and his wife will get all the help ththey need. The couple visit the new at and accept the offer.

Case 2. Mrs T is 80 years old, and arthritic. Her local GP has referred her casasking for Home Help. She lives on her own in bungalow. She uses a walkinframe to help with walking. She can no longer manage pans and cooking fherself. She was coping well until she fell ve days previously, fracturing her wrisShe visited the hospital casualty department for treatment on the wrist and wdischarged home. A friend has been helping but she is elderly and nding thconstant help that Mrs T needs too much of a struggle for her.

The Home Care Manager visits and assesses Mrs T. She is slow and ndholding the frame difcult because of the arthritis in her hands and fractured wrisShe has difculty with washing, dressing, toileting, bathing, preparing foocooking and shopping.

The friend who calls in has been cooking and shopping and helping wipersonal care. She would still like to visit her friend twice a week and will do smaamounts of shopping and get Mrs Ts pension when she gets her own. Mrs Tthree children all live away from their home town, have their own families anwork. The eldest expects to retire in the next year. The family arranged to take in turns to visit on Sundays, keep the house and garden tidy and in good repai

The Home Care Manager asks for an urgent visit from the Occupational TherapServices to assess Mrs T for equipment for daily living. While waiting for thassessment a home help will call at mealtimes and help with dressing in thmorning. The friend will call about 7.00 pm to help with undressing.

Two days later, an Occupational Therapy Assistant (OTA) calls to assess foequipment to help with daily living. Mrs T can eat with special cutlery and a platguard. She can manage a cup of tea with a kettle tipper if it is laid out for her. M

T can manage toast or cereal for breakfast if put out before. Tea is manageable witbread, butter, cheese or cold meats. Mrs T can manage her gas cooker with the helof replacement dials The kitchen is well organised With a perching stool she ca

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of replacement dials. The kitchen is well organised. With a perching stool she ca

404 R. A. W. RHODES

warden call system will be installed by the end of the week by the councilhousing services. The Gas Board will call within 48 hours to replace the dials othe cooker.

The Home Care Manager rearranges the home help. She provides a morning cafrom her own services Monday to Friday and arranges a private agency o

Saturdays. The Home Help will help with buttons and to collect shopping anpension or to do some basic cleaning. They will do the laundry and ironing. Onhour a day is allowed. The home carer helps Mrs T to use her bath board to hava bath one morning a week. Breakfast and tea are laid out and the kettle is llefor the day. A twilight service will call any time between 7.00 pm and 9.00 pMonday to Saturday to help with undressing; 15 minutes are allowed. Theservices are arranged and purchased by the Home Care Manager.

The Womens Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS) delivers Meals-on-Wheels oMondays and Fridays. Frozen meals are cooked at a local primary school an

delivered by the home help. On Saturdays Mrs T will treat herself to a meal cookeand delivered by a local hotel.

Mrs T does not get out at all, and with increasing disability does not feel thshe can consider going out. She is isolated. Various local centres have activities fthe elderly run either by the council or voluntary agencies such as Age Concerwhich runs a post-hospital-discharg e support service. Used to her own companMrs T is nervous about mixing with others. She is so grateful for all the help shgets that she does not want to be a nuisance and does not like to ask for informatioand more help. She also has no income other than her state pension. The HomCare Manager is busy and now all the arrangements are in place will make a quicvisit to check every six months.

Mrs T will pay the second-tier home care charge of 5.00 (A$13.00) a weebecause she does not receive Income Support or Council Tax benet. Her meawill cost 1.40 (A$3.55) each Monday to Friday and her meal on Saturdays wicost 3.00 (A$7.60). She pays all her service charges, Council Tax (520 A$1320.00 a year) and other outgoings from her pension of 61.15 (A$155.00)week. She has savings of 7000 (A$18,000).

The social worker concerned wondered if Mrs Ts quality of life would bimproved if a care manager or social worker assessed her. Is the quality of Mrs Tlife improved by the range of services provided by the Home Care Manager anOTA? Social workers may have other resources at their ngertips. Could someontake her to a local lunch club, a day centre? She may like playing bingo, or whisWhat about a stay in a residential home or a holiday with her friend perhaps? Mrs T entitled to more money? What about Income Support, Attendance Allowance, and Council Tax Benet? Would Mrs T have more choice about the serviceshe would like if she had more income? Would she have to pay more for some o

the services?

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Geriatrician kept in regular contact with the family and a community psychiatrnurse visited once a week. Mrs K attended the specialist day hospital one dayweek and the local elderly persons day care centre one day a week. The sociservices Home Help service called in the morning (Monday to Friday) to see thMrs K was dressed, breakfasted and ready for any transport that would be callin

On the days that Mrs K was at home, the home help called at lunchtime to maksure that she had eaten the hot meal delivered by WRVS or the home he(prepared at the local elderly persons home). The family called in at teatime anagain later in the evening to check that Mrs K was all right. Mrs K tended not tsleep at night and would telephone neighbours in the middle of the night for helShe had been known to wander out in the middle of the night disturbing thneighbours.

To give the family a break, Mrs K was admitted to the local elderly personhome for a two-week short stay. After two days Mrs K became confused an

disoriented, demanding to go home. The home manager became concerned wheMrs K began to wander outdoors, something she had not done while attending dacare. Mrs K hit a member of staff who had tried to escort her indoors. A decisiowas made to allow Mrs K to go to the day hospital as usual and arrangements wermade for her to return home.

On returning home Mrs K became even more disoriented, wanting to return ther home to be with mummy and daddy. She hit her daughter when her daughtetried to take her around the house to convince her that she was at home. Thdaughter broke down, saying that the family could no longer cope and that shcould not allow her children to visit with their own children if Mrs K was gointo be violent.

The Consultant visited and decided that Mrs K needed reassessment and a revieof her medication. She was admitted to the psychiatric hospital. The assessmeshowed that Mrs Ks condition had deteriorated rapidly into a delusional anchallenging phase. No long-term beds were available from the health trust but, withe correct medication, Mrs Ks condition and behaviour could be reasonably wecontrolled. Mrs K was referred for permanent care to the social services camanager attached to the hospital.

The care manager decided that Mrs K needed 24-hour supervision and assistancwith all aspects of daily living and personal care. The care manager discussed thwith the family who were clearly distressed at the idea of nursing home care foMrs K. With the new medication, Mrs K was less aggressive and they believed ththey could manage with a full package of care for Mrs K. They insisted that MrK returned home.

The Care Plan was complicated and expensive, costing an average 360 (A$91a week. Cover for each hour of 24 hours was worked out for two-week blocks. Th

Care Plan involved the health trusts psychiatric day services, private nursing homday care, private agency home care, voluntary home care sitting services, sociservices home care and several transport services supportin g the daughter

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services home care and several transport services supportin g the daughter

406 R. A. W. RHODES

secure funding from the joint-nance continuing care fund for the rst four weekThe care manager was unhappy about the arrangements because it is widely knowand particularly in the case of Mrs K, that constant changes in carers and locatioadd to disorientation and confusion for people with dementia.

The daughter was concerned that she would have to give up work and asked

a private agency could be bought in for the equivalent amount of money. Thwould not help; there would continue to be many carers visiting. The house wouseem like a railway station with so many people calling.

The arrangements were set up on discharge but quickly became difcult manage, as Mrs K would not attend day care some days and more care had to bbought in from the private home care agency. There were frequent problems wimaintaining regular home care support with home carers being ill, late or nturning up, and replacements being difcult to nd in a rural area. Mrs Ks son andaughter-in-law did what they could to help but they did not live locally and ar

not as committed as the daughter.After one month, the care manager decided to approach Community Servic

Volunteers (CSVs), a national volunteer agency that provides young volunteers afull-time live-in carers. Four weeks later two young volunteers began providin24-hour care and supervision for Mrs K. The care plan covered a three-week blocwith supplementary help f or the CSVs. The cost of the care was similar. Twmonths later the young volunteers were feeling the stresses and strains of carinfull-time for an elderly person with dementia. They were ghting among themselves and one young person began taking the medication prescribed for Mrs K andrinking alcohol. She was asked to leave. One week later Mrs K died.

Management: we are in the shit if we dont

This example is from an interview with the Chair of a Primary Care Trust (PCTHe has been in post for less than a year and the PCT is a new organisation. He soberly dressed and the interview is business-like. It takes place in his study in hmodern house in an exclusive housing development aimed at the executive an

professional classes. We sit at opposite sides of the table. To resort to shorthanhe represents the new management in the UK public sector. His job is to providstrategic leadership for the primary care sector of the National Health Servic(NHS). Primary care comprises the services provided in a specic geographic areby family or general practitioners and the community health services, such midwifery, which look after people in their own homes. The account is in thmanagers own words. I have edited them into a continuous text. At a few poinI have left my questions or prompts in the text (marked RR).

Our major partner is the local authority as whole, not just social services. One of

the rst people I met was the chief executive of a local authority. I rang him up

and said Id like to see him and he and the leader of the council came round to

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and said I d like to see him and he and the leader of the council came round to


of what they do on us is great and vice versa. Within a few weeks they asked meif I would be the vice-chair of the community safety partnership and that, it turned

out, was really to chair it because the person who chairs it, who is the former

leader of the council, was never there. Whenever Ive been there, which is three

times now, Ive chaired it. So, yeah, they were very keen to get us into things like

that. I knew the former director of social services very well. He moved on to ajob in the Department of Health at Christmas. Yeah, Ive known him for years

and years, and I guess he knows a lot about what Ive done in the past and Im

sure hes passed that on to people in the local authority.

I certainly see the director of the community services, who is the chief ofcer

responsible for community safety, regularly. I see the guy whohe has chiefofcer statusis responsible for the local strategic partnership in the community

plan. Theres a lot of issues about mental health and crime and only this week I

discovered a whole set of issues around prison health. We primarily meet in a

partnership group. It is one of ve task groups. It reports to the overall localstrategic partnership. The local strategic partnership is the over-arching liaison,

strategic, planning mechanism that brings together all the elements of thecommunity plan, but if we need to have a one-to-one, yes. For example, I wanted

to see the local commander and again he came around to the ofce for about an

hour just to chat.

Apart from the local authority and the community plan, the other key actors are

the provider trusts and in our case there is an acute trust, a mental health andlearning disabilities trust. Then, in addition, theres the whole primary care sector.

Obviously in some respects they are major providers but in the main they are stillindependent contractors and they are not on a contract with us, but they are our

partners, they are part of the trust.

There are separate meetings of all the chief executives, and there are separatemeetings of all the chairs, though as a result of a proposal I made at the last

chairs meeting, were going to have some joint meetings. But most of the

business is done through bilaterals. There are some exceptions that sort of prove

the rule, like there was a review of acute services. There is the nancial

agreement each year, whats called the Service and Financial Framework (SAFF),

which is certainly the centre of the nancial frameworks. Essentially thats whereeach purchaser agrees with the local providers what the cash envelope is in the

coming year, and what targets they will meet in terms of delivering their services,

and that is a politicised process with a small p, which has been brokered by the

health authority. This year because there are lots of deals that have to be donearound the two big acute trustswhich have implications for the rest of the

services, as they tend to swallow up a lot of the growththose deals have to be

brokered on an area-wide basis.

The health authority is also a major actor. We have to sign an annual

accountability agreement with it. The essential element of it is that we will meetthe targets laid down in the national NHS plan. We meet them on a quarterly

basis Theres the regional ofce of the NHS executive to which we are

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basis There s the regional ofce of the NHS executive to which we are

408 R. A. W. RHODES

I mentioned the meetings of the chairs of the trust and the health authority. Therst meeting I went to, it was absolutely clear that weve got a major problem

with the East acute trust, which has been built up to provide regional specialties.It was saying that it couldnt meet its cost reduction targets and if it cant do that,then there is no growth money available to use to develop some other areas of

service in which Im strongly interested. So Ive used a combination of informallobbying of some of the other chairs, plus the meetings to say: actually, I dontthink we can let this happen. We cant have the chair of another trust comingalong and saying Im sorry but were not going to meet these targets. What Ive

done so far is I have been careful to build up a relationship with the acuteprovider on the West bank who provides most of our acute services and who alsosuffers if East gets all this cash; and with the community mental health trust whowill lose a lot. You know weve got poor mental health services which Id like

to see improved and theres no way theyll get improved if we cant get this

money out of the trust. It hasnt been necessary to take it outside the area so far.It may be, it may be.

Within the town, all the major players work in ofces within a 10 minute walkof one another. Domestically and socially, everybody knows where you live andwhere you went. At the senior level, a number of people meet for lunch and havedrinks during the day and things like that. Ive met the director of social services

to have a pub meal. There is, undoubtedly, a local network which is beginning toself-consciously think about organising itself, rationalising a lot of the activities.I think it was Wednesday I was chairing the community safety thing, and we

talked about rationalising the way that youth offending, drugs and communitysafety are handled, so now its all going to be within a single framework.The voluntary or the private sectors are not immensely signicant for decision

making in the arenas that I operate in. It is not as signicant in this area as in

some places because of the long tradition of municipal Labourism. If not alive andwell, its still there [laughs]. The voluntary sector is, however, a major player inservice delivery although it is not a major player in terms of strategic develop-ment.

We have a responsibility to consult with and involve the public in settingpriorities and getting feedback about health services and weve got what we callthe communications forum, which meets about every two months. We can get asmany as 60 people into a meeting. Weve invested a lot of time in developing

good relationships with a wide range of community groups.

RR: There really is a local area network that has to be worked, managed, andlearnt?

Absolutely. Yes. Every week I will be involved in a meeting with some part

of it, which will be a decision-making meeting in the main.We havent talked also about the inter-relationship between my other roles

because Im part of national and regional networks by virtue of my job, whichplays directly into my PCT role as well.

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RR: What are the benets and costs of this kind of management?

The time issue. We have a central government that is behaving proactively in

relation to a whole range of issues. So people on the ground are suffering from

initiative-itis. The benets are [long pause]. The way I conceive of health, and the

role of health organisations, means that its impossible to achieve any goalswithout working with and through other organisations and other key actors

regionally, and especially locally, and to some extent nationally. It would not be

possible to do the work that I do, it wouldnt full the goals I have, unless I wasapproaching it in that way. I guess I am trying to turn this into more of a managed

network. Im hoping to talk to the chief executive of the local authority in the next

week or so about how we can rationalise some of our activities and how we can

get this common planning support capacity.The cost of it? You know it obviously is time-consuming. I guess if you didnt

naturally enjoy this kind of work then it could be difcultif you were a sort of

shrinking violet as it were, did not have the personal qualities that go with this

[long pause]. I guess there have to be costs in terms of juggling so many thingsat the same time. It would be easy to burn out yourself as well as the organisation.

Theres no question about that. So you have to keep it within limits. I cant I

mean I suppose, to be honest, the honest answer is that it is so new and Im

enjoying it so much that it doesnt have any obvious costs at the moment but overtime they may become much more evident.

RR: Networks presuppose some agreement on values and that agreement on

values is very elusive?Thats absolutely right. There is an agreement on some basic values on the part

of most of the people I meet and the major one goes back to the old thing about

city pride. You know its the really old thing; we are working on behalf of the

people of the area. Theres a public service ethos, theres no doubt about that.Unless we work together, then we cant actually manage ourselves out of some

of the difculties weve got because if you want to do what you want to do, you

have to work with them. Theres a strong recognition that we are in the shit if we

dont.

Permanent Secretary: keep the show on the road

The permanent secretaries of government departments sit at the top of a hierarchwhere three main tasks come together: political advice (to ministers), managemen(of their departments) and diplomacy (or managing external relations). It is singular combination. The jobs ingredients would be instantly recognised by earliegenerations (and f or a more detailed account see Rhodes and Weller 2001). In theextracts from an interview transcript, a current permanent secretary (PS) talks abou

his role in managing links with the rest of the civil service and with the outsidworld. The interview takes place in a well-apportioned, large ofce in Whitehall ithe early evening The private ofce serves tea I (RR) sit in an easy chair Initiall

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the early evening The private ofce serves tea I (RR) sit in an easy chair Initiall

410 R. A. W. RHODES

PS: You knew people, you knew all of your own type, you know, the wholegeneration of them, all the people who are assistant principals, you knew all ofthem. You knew some bits of the department quite well, but you had quite anarrow focus, which is unusual, because there are only one or two really bigdepartments like that. Then there was the network thing. You were internally

focused really, so you were looking up and across in our case for the X division.So you had that network. Then you go to the private ofce. You were now on adifferent network. Youve got both the network down inside your department,across the whole of it, so youve got a coverage which is huge, which is quitetricky, and youve got the network across Whitehall and to an extent youve alsogot an international network as well. So you have to establish those relationships,keep them lubricated, keep the show on the road.

Obviously what appeals about it is youre dealing with people in Number 10,and in our case, we had well established ways of working, which generally

worked very successfully because we had the same little group of people weredealing with. So we knew Number 10, the Foreign Ofce, to an extent theTreasury, to an extent the DTI [Department of Trade and Industry], and denedbits of the Cabinet Ofce, two dened bits of the Cabinet Ofce. If you workedthose systems a lot, the people you were working with were on secondment andyou knew them. Or if you didnt know them the day you got there, they took youinto their circle. People in the civil service are basically open and welcoming andwant people to succeed. So they took you into their network and you then workedtheir network and then by the time you came out of the other end, since this wasbasically a development thing, youd developed an idea about how the govern-

ment as a whole worked; you knew how to work that machine and you had atop-of-the-pyramid view of your own organisation. And it works you know. Itsgood training. I didnt know this at the time cause I didnt really think aboutnetworks and how it all works, but the people above you are getting to know whoyou are.

RR: I see. So presumably, necessarily, you begin to build networks around youwhen you move to these kinds of posts?

PS: You build it, yes.

RR: You have to build it consciously?

PS: Yes, and you build it differently. Ive taken over posts from differentpersonalities and you do the job differently. I dont know whether you do it betteror worse, but Ive taken over from very capable people, where Ive thought wellIm doing this job much worse than them, but others obviously were quite happyat how I was doing it. But you do it differently. So, yes, you stamp your personalstyle. Some people you know are great producers of paper and great writers topeople and so on and some are very assertive. I always thought I was more sort

of consensual and theyd probably say I was more manipulative. You can havedifferent styles, but youre delivering and people see whether youre delivering ornot Now what are they measuring? They are measuring whether youre achieving

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not Now what are they measuring? They are measuring whether you re achieving


departments at ofcial level. At the end of doing that, you know how the central

government machine works.

I then moved to be the private secretary to the permanent secretary and spent

about two and bit years as his private secretary. This again was a sort of classic

career move for a civil servant, a principal level civil servant. You were sitting

next door to the great man. You saw how he worked. You underpinned what hedid. The notional job description was fairly menial. You were organising the ow

of paper and taking the records of meetings. But you were on the inside and you

could see how top people worked. So you saw another network, in a sense the

permanent secretarys network.

RR: Was there a social network supporting the work network?

PS: There was and there still is. There was a sort of network of private secretaries.

There was a network of permanent secretaries as there still isa lot of mutual

loyalty amongst them. There was a sort of parallel network of private secretaries.So you were all in the same boat together, you worked together, you got to know

each other, and you all went up the machine together. So again I suppose you

were creating these cross-boundary networks. You spent a lot of your time

working to make the system succeed and you had that network, but you didnt

meet socially very often. I mean it was quite funny. You might meet once a year

at a party or something, and youd nally put the faces to the voices.

RR: How has your job changed since becoming a permanent secretary?

PS: Well if you are in any big department and you are the permanent secretary

you are trying to give a sense of leadership to the whole department under

ministers. You dont tend to get involved in those bits that are going well. I used

to leave them to get on with it. They could do it. They knew what they were

doing. They took the glory. If it went wrong, or I thought it was going wrong, I

would get involved. Also you spend a lot of your time on sort of broader civil

service management, corporate issues across the whole service. If I worked out

how I spend my time, quite a lot of my time actually is spent on corporate issues

across the whole civil service and things in support of the government as a whole.

RR: Could you give me an example of this work?

PS: There is a civil service management committee, theres Honours work, theres

discussions about where the civil service goes more informally and so on, all

those sorts of things.

RR: I wondered if this work linked into the current interest in joined-up

government?

PS: Theres now a stronger sense of the need for permanent secretaries to get

together and talk about some of these joined-up issues. I nd I have a slightly

different view on this to some others because in my previous department we had

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different view on this to some others because in my previous department we had

412 R. A. W. RHODES

joined-up-ness isnt a great revolutionary idea for me. But I think it is difcult on

the civilian side.

There is a traditional role where permanent secretaries meet up and deal with

things, the paraphernalia of state in various ways, the senior civil service

appointments, and the group that does Honours. But I suppose under the present

government theres been a feeling that the corporate management of the civilservice, as opposed to the management of the process of selecting senior people,

was insufciently strong and we are still developing that and that, as you say,

policy making was insufciently joined-up and that permanent secretaries needed

to be involved in that and to give a lead.

Conclusions

The obvious point to which this conclusion must return is: what does thconstructivis t turn add to our understandin g of networks? There is an obviouanswer. Because we have not engaged in observation, because ethnographaccounts of networks are a rarity, so the constructivist turn, by directing oattention to what networks mean to their participants, repairs a major empiriclacuna. There are other advantages, theoretical and methodological.

About Networks

The basic claim made for ethnographic method in general is that it captures thmeaning of everyday human activities (Hammersley and Atkinson 1983, 2). Fenn(1990, 2) argues: The aim is to see the world as they see it, to adopt their vantagpoint on politics. It encourages the researcher to get out there and see what actoother than the elite are thinking and doing. It generates descriptive accounvaluable in their own right (Hammersley and Atkinson 1983, 237). It also aids thdevelopment of theory because extensive contact with people challenges thpreconceptions of social scientists (Hammersley and Atkinson 1983, 23). It exploratoryunstructured soaking (Fenno 1990, 57)and encourages fresh linof thought. Research strategies and ideas can be adapted quickly. And for thowho are so inclined, it can be used to test theory; by, for example, the detailestudy of key cases (Hammersley and Atkinson 1983, 24). Although my eldworextracts are brief, nonetheless they do illustrate the potential of an ethnographapproach, of thick descriptions.

The most obvious point is that network is an everyday term used by consumeand managers alike to describe the web of relationships in which they aembedded. But there are signicant differences in what the term means to each o

them. Consumers experience networks as given, as complex, confusing structurethat seem xed and immutable. Customers also see the services as given in thsense of gifts and they are grateful Gratitude sustains dependence thereb

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sense of gifts, and they are grateful. Gratitude sustains dependence, thereb


constructingthat is, designing, building and managinga network not just for horganisation but also for the local area. Indeed, I would argue that, during ouconversations, the Chair worked out that he was constructing an area network. was not an explicit part of his strategy at the start of our conversation. Hrecognised that he is not required to build the linkages but believes he will be i

the shit if he doesnt.The permanent secretary also sees himself as constructing a network to get th

job done. In his case, however, it is a lifelong network built up as he is socialiseinto the workings of the civil service. He is groomed to inhabit networks, traineto develop them. It is also an inward-looking network. Other organisations for thPCT Chair refer to a disparate set of bodies, but for the civil service it refesubstantially , if not exclusively, to other central departments. For many yearcentral government has been described as a federation. Networking provides thglue, which holds the parts together. The permanent secretary understands network

ing as essential to producing corporate glue.My claim for these short extracts is a simple one. The term network h

different meanings for each respondent and the study of networks must captuthese meanings, not read them off from the beliefs and practices we assume adherto a specic position.

In sum, a constructivist approach to networks lls the gaps identied earlier the analysis of networks. Thus, and rst, networks have no characteristics indepedent of the construction s of its members. There is no essentialist account networks that can be used either to produce law-like generalisations or to legitimaadvice to policy makers.

Second, the road to understanding both the differences between networks anhow networks change lies in decentred accounts focusing on the political ethnography of networks and on narratives that give due recognition to the creativindividual, not the techniques of positivis t social science. Individua l actors costruct networks even as governments seek to create them, and researchers seek impose their denition of the situation. As researchers, we write constructionabout how other people construct the world.

Third, the key lesson of a constructivist approach for those advising governmeis that there is no single tool kit they can use to steer networks. Practitioners mighlearn from academics by listening to, and telling, stories. The human sciences offonly provisional knowledge but an awareness of our limits does not render thhuman sciences useless. If we cannot offer solutions, we can dene and redenproblems in novel ways. We can tell the policy makers and administratodistinctive stories about their world and how it is governed (see, for example, Re1976). The language of networks challenges the language of managerialismmarkets and contracts.

There are therefore two obvious claims for a decentred approach. First, thexisting literature rarely, if ever, explores how actors understand the networks which they work A decentred approach takes such understanding s as its bas

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which they work. A decentred approach takes such understanding s as its bas

414 R. A. W. RHODES

About Methods

Fenno (1990, ch. 3) provides perhaps the most insightfu l account I have comacross of the opportunities and limits of ethnography.8 I cannot better his accouso I extract key points and add personal reections from my own work on top civ

servants (Rhodes and Weller 2001).First, the aim is to see the world through the eyes of the consumer, manager, tocivil servant; to make our construction of their construction of the world. So, thkey question is: Whose network? The network structure is not given to us. It built up through the accounts of its members. Dont assume, ask and listen to threply. As academics, we are used to the sound of our own voice. In eldwork, ovoice can be the equivalent of static or white noiseit interferes with receptio

Second, trust is essentialbeing nice to people and trying to see the world athey see it. You need to be patient, come on slow, and feel your way along. Tw

handy hints: Go where you are driven; take what you are given; and, when doubt, be quiet. I would add be patient and stick around. Gradually you becompart of the furniture.

Third, both insuf cient, and too much, rapport are problems. A professionrelationship can slip into a personal friendship. I did not want them as friendsonly respondents. If they invite you home, you cannot refuse but dont take noteSwitch off as a researcher and forget what you hear. To keep your distance, Fennsuggests some rules of neutrality. I have not registered with a party; I have nengaged in partisan activity; I sign no political petitions; I join no supportin

organisations or interest groups; I engage in no radio, TV or newspaper commentary. I do not allow my name to be used for political purposes.

Finally, be critical of yourself. It is all too easy to contaminate the relationshbetween observed and observer and cause respondents to behave differently. Thaim may be to remain the outsider but for lengthy on-site visits and extensivrepeat interviews, you have to have a conversation. You cannot just nod. Observinhas its costs. You get tired, you forget quickly and interviews produce anxietYour notes are selective, a reconstruction. The data is not better then quantitativdata. It is just different. Finally, there are sound criteria for judging the work. Firs

judgement is made by the researcheddo they recognise themselves and theworld? Second, the academic community makes judgementdoes it ring true, doeit say anything new and insightful? (Rhodes 1997, 190 2).

There is no single way to do research in the social sciences. I am all too awarof the limits of ethnography. There is one important limitation to the analysis in tharticle. As the observer, I report the interviews as if I am neutral and as if the daare given to me in a pure or unmediated form. I am not that na ve. All observeconstruct their material drawing on their prior theories. We understand Mrs K, thChair of the PCT and the permanent secretary by understanding their beliefs an

practices relative to a specic context. We understand their context by looking the traditions in which they were socialised (on the notion of traditions see Bev

d h d 2003) h f i i f h

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d Rh d 2003) I t th t f ti t ti f h


aggregates as the nation-state. Interviewees can be self-serving and misleading. Thvalidity and reliability of the data can always be disputed. But I am prepared tdefend the proposition that our understanding of political life, whether in the guiof political parties or policy networks, must be grounded in observation. And soreturn to my opening quotation: I believe that not enough political scientists ar

presently engaged in observation (Fenno 1990, 128). This article is a plea fdecentred research, grounding the study of policy networks in ethnography anputting people back into networks.

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