The struggles for (and of) network management: an ethnographic study of non-dominant policy actors in the English healthcare system

The coordinating skills of network management are well documented, but there is little understanding of how network management roles are acquired and sustained. This article reports on a two-year ethnographic study that investigated the introduction of a regional healthcare network in England. It describes the strategies used by non-dominant actors to acquire and sustain network management roles in the face of opposition from more powerful actors. These strategies complement existing theory on network management and offer new theoretical understanding regarding the social position of network managers.