Policy Network Ties in the Dynamic Process of Environmental Conflict Resolution

Extensive previous research has investigated environmental conflict management issues in networked settings and the design of policy networks, but the emergence and evolution of self-organizing policy networks are still not fully understood. Especially misunderstood is the problem of how the multiple motivations or incentives of competing policy actors in conflictual situations affect their structures of interaction, as this issue has not been studied systematically. This book aims to address the following research questions: how do policy stakeholders cope strategically with collective action or environmental conflict resolution? How do they utilize or maintain formal and informal policy networks to resolve problems effectively? What motivates them to engage or be involved in collaborative or conflictual networks? What influences their networking or their decisions on partner selection for conflict resolution? 

This book consists of four studies. The goal of the firststudy is to examine the form of a policy network by focusing on how policy networks emerge and evolve at the micro-level to solve collective action dilemmas endemic to decentralized and democratized policy decision-making processes, particularly in the environmental conflict resolution arena. The goal of the second study is to examine the main policy actors and structural characteristics of network governance evolution in the dynamic process of environmental conflict resolution. The goal of the third study is to highlight the role of policy tie formality in the evolution of multiplex ties in the environmental conflict resolution process. The goal of the fourth study is to demonstrate the relationships between patterns of interactions among policy actors and their modified and adjusted strategic behaviours within policy networks and across advocacy coalitions.

Dr. Seunghoo Lim is a professor of public policy in the Graduate School of International Relations at the International University of Japan (IUJ). His main areas of research interest include policy processes, public/nonprofit management, network governance structures and policy tools. Since graduating summa cum laude from Seoul National University with a major in political science in 2007, he has accumulated a wealth of research, professional and teaching experience at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) in New York, the Korea Institute of Public Administration in Seoul, and Florida State University. He also graduated from Seoul National University with a Master of Public Administration, with a specific focus on public management, as the valedictorian of the class of 2011. Furthermore, he earned a Ph.D. in Public Administration, with a specific focus on public policy, from the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy at Florida State University in 2015. He is a recipient of the 2011-2016 Legacy Fellowship from Florida State University, the 2013 Raul P. deGuzman Award for the Best Ph.D. Paper from the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy, the 2013 Morris W. H. Collins Award for the Best Ph.D. Paper from the Southeastern Conference for Public Administration (SECoPA), the 2014 ASPA Founders’ Fellowship from the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) and the 2014 NASPAA Statts Emerging Scholar Award from the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA). His research has appeared in refereed journals, including Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Administration & Development, Public Performance & Management Review, Social Science & Medicine, International Review of Administrative Sciences, VOLUNTAS: International Journal ofVoluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, Lex Localis–Journal of Local Self-Government, Public Personnel Management, Politics and Governance, Romanian Journal of Political Science, Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, Disaster Prevention & Management, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, International Journal for Equity in Health, Sustainable Cities and Society, Sustainability, Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, Social Networks, and International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. In the future, Dr. Seunghoo Lim hopes to focus on the study of network governance arrangements as a means of overcoming public problems and policy conflicts.