Comparing and combining Social Network Analysis and Stakeholder Analysis for natural resource governance

In this paper, Social Network Analysis (SNA) and Stakeholder Analysis (SA) are utilized to identify the main stakeholders, evaluate their powers and interests, and demonstrate their relations in the Kan River Basin, Tehran, Iran. Their attributes are determined by the use of SA and their relations and connections are determined by the use of SNA. In the next step, five different classes for management of surface and groundwater in the study area are considered to draw social networks. Then, collaborative and conflictive formal (i.e. institutional) relationships between actors, and their intensity are investigated separately for each management class. The idea of independently considering collaborative and conflictive relations resulted in a better understanding of the governance system. Implementing the methodology for five different management classes and also regarding institutional relations by their nature and intensity provided more reliable results. In this paper, organizations are distinguished precisely, based on their own characteristics, and more importantly, their position in the system according to the others' perceptions. The combined use of SA and SNA for analyzing the governance of an environmental system has been done in a variety of scientific fields, but their results have never been compared to find probable correlations and analogies. In this paper, perhaps for the first time, a comprehensive statistical comparison between the results of SA and SNA is accomplished. An error index is also proposed for comparing the results of SA and SNA for the purpose of this research. Conclusions of the statistical analysis represent some rational and interesting correlations and similarities between the various features of these two well-known methods. Findings of the analysis can help to better understand the structure of these methods and to facilitate combining them in order to better analyze a complicated system of stakeholders.