Influential governance theories argue that we live increasingly in a world of networks either relegating hierarchy to the shadows or dismissing it altogether. This paper develops a Gramscian critique of these currents, advancing two key arguments. First, drawing on Gramsci's concepts of hegemony and passive revolution, it reinterprets the cultivation of networks as a prominent element in the hegemonic strategies of Western neoliberalism, exemplified by UK public policy. Second, however, governing networks struggle to cultivate trust, relying instead on hierarchy and closure. It is argued that network governance can therefore be understood as a form of Gramsci's integral state, a concept which highlights both the continuing centrality of coercion in the governance system and the limits of the networks project. It is concluded that conceiving of urban governing networks as micro configurations of the integral state offers a distinctive way of overcoming the ‘government to governance’ dualism.
BeckU, 2007, “Beyond class and nation: Reframing social inequalities in a globalizing world”British Journal of Sociology58679–705
7.
BeckUGiddensALashS, 1994Reflexive Modernization: Politics, Tradition and Aesthetics in the Modern Social Order (Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA)
8.
BevirM, 2005New Labour: A Critique (Routledge, London)
9.
BevirMRhodesR A W, 2006Governance Stories (Routledge, London)
10.
BielerAMortonA D, 2003, “Globalisation, the state and class struggle: A ‘critical economy’ engagement with open Marxism”British Journal of Politics and International Relations5467–499
BockmeyerJ L, 2000, “A culture of distrust: The impact of local political culture on participation in the Detroit EZ”Urban Studies372417–2440
13.
BoltanskiLChiapelloE, 2005The New Spirit of Capitalism (Verso, London)
14.
BrennerNTheodoreN, 2002, “Cities and the geographies of ‘actually existing neoliberalism’”Antipode34349–379
15.
CallinicosA T, 2007, “Does capitalism need the state system?”Cambridge Review of International Affairs20533–549
16.
CallinicosA T, 2010, “The limits of passive revolution”Capital and Class34491–507
17.
CammackP, 2004, “What the World Bank means by poverty reduction, and why it matters”New Political Economy9189–211
18.
ChandlerD, 2001, “Active citizens and the therapeutic state: The role of democratic participation in local government reform”Policy and Politics293–14
19.
CollinsC, 1999, “Applying Bakhtin in urban studies: The failure of community participation in the Ferguslie Park Partnership”Urban Studies3673–90
20.
CookKHardinRLeviM, 2007Cooperation without Trust? (Russell Sage Foundation, New York)
21.
CoxR WSchechterM G, 2002The Political Economy of a Plural World: Critical Reflections on Power, Morals and Civilization (Routledge, London)
22.
CrouchC, 2011The Strange Non-death of Neoliberalism (Polity Press, Cambridge)
23.
DarbasT, 2008, “Reflexive governance of urban catchments: A case of deliberative truncation”Environment and Planning A401454–1469
24.
DaviesJ S, 2007, “The limits of partnership: An exit-action strategy for local democratic inclusion”Political Studies55779–800
25.
DaviesJ S, 2009, “The limits of joined-up government: Towards a political analysis”Public Administration8780–96
26.
DaviesJ S, 2011Challenging Governance Theory: From Networks to Hegemony (The Policy Press, Bristol)
27.
DaviesJ S, 2012, “Active citizenship: Navigating the conservative heartlands of the New Labour project”Policy and Politics403–19
28.
DaviesJ SPillM, 2012, “Hollowing-out neighbourhood governance? Rescaling revitalization in Baltimore and Bristol”Urban Studies492199–2217
29.
FontanaB, 2002, “Gramsci on politics and state”Journal of Classical Sociology2157–178
30.
FontanaB, 2010, “Political space and hegemonic power in Gramsci”Journal of Power3341–363
31.
FrancesJLevačićRMitchellJThompsonG F, 1991, “Introduction”, in Markets, Hierarchies and Networks: The Coordination of Social Life Eds ThompsonG FFrancesJLevačićRMitchellJ (Open University Press, Milton Keynes, Bucks) pp 1–20
32.
FredericksonG H, 2005, “Whatever happened to public administration? Governance, governance everywhere”, in The Oxford Handbook of Public Management Eds FerlieELynnL EPollittC (Oxford University Press, Oxford) pp 282–304
33.
FusaroL, 2010, “Gramsci's concept of hegemony at the national and international level” presented at the First Conference of the International Initiative for Promoting Political Economy, 12 September, http://www.iippe.org/wiki/images/0/09/CONF_IPE_Fusaro.pdf
34.
GeddesM, 2006, “Partnership and the limits to local governance in England: Institutionalist analysis and neo-liberalism”International Journal of Urban and Regional Research3076–97
35.
GeddesM, 2008, “Inter-organizational relationships in local and regional development partnerships”, in The Oxford Handbook of Inter-organizational Relations Eds CropperSEbersMHuxhamCRingSmith P (Oxford University Press, Oxford) pp 203–230
36.
GeddesMDaviesJ SFullerC, 2007, “Evaluating local strategic partnerships: Theory and practice of change”Local Government Studies33(1) 97–116
37.
GiddensA, 1994Beyond Left and Right: The Future of Radical Politics (Polity Press, Cambridge)
38.
GiddensA, 1998The Third Way (Polity Press, Cambridge)
39.
GramsciA, 1971Selections from Prison Notebooks translated and edited by HoareQuintin and Nowell-SmithGeoffrey (Lawrence and Wishart, London)
40.
GramsciA, 1995Further Selections from the Prison Notebooks translated and edited by BoothmanDerek (Lawrence and Wishart, London)
41.
Guarneros-MezaV, 2008, “Local governance in Mexico: The case of two historic-centre partnerships”Urban Studies451011–1035
42.
HallPKettunenPLofgrenKRingholmT, 2009, “Is there a Nordic approach to questions of democracy in studies of network governance?”Local Government Studies35515–538
HarveyD, 2011, “The urban roots of the financial crisis: Reclaiming the city for anti-capitalist struggle”Socialist Register 2012 pages 1–35
47.
HobsbawmE, 1989Politics for a Rational Left: Political Writings 1877–1988 (Verso, London)
48.
IsettK RMergelI ALeRouxKMischenP ARethemeyerR K, 2011, “Networks in public administration scholarship: Understanding where we are and where we need to go”Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory21(supplement 1) i157–i173
49.
JessopB, 1997, “A neo-Gramscian approach to the regulation of urban regimes: Accumulation strategies, hegemonic projects and governance”, in Reconstructing Urban Regime Theory: Regulating Urban Politics in a Global Economy Ed. LauriaM (Sage, London) pp 51–73
50.
JessopB, 2007State Power (Polity Press, Cambridge)
51.
JessopB, 2011, “The state: Government and governance”, in Handbook of Local and Regional Development Eds PikeARodriguez-PoseATomaneyJ (Routledge, London) pp 239–248
52.
JessopBSumN-L, 2005Beyond the Regulation Approach: Putting the Capitalist Economy in its Place (Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, Glos)
53.
JessopBBrennerNJonesM, 2008, “Theorizing sociospatial relations”Environment and Planning D: Society and Space26389–401
54.
JohnsonR, 2007, “Post-hegemony? I don't think so”Theory, Culture and Society2495–110
55.
KenisPOerlemansL, 2008, “The social network perspective: Understanding the structure of cooperation”, in The Oxford Handbook of Inter-organizational Relations Eds CropperSEbersMHuxhamCRingSmith P (Oxford University Press, Oxford) pp 289–312
56.
KipferS, 2002, “Urbanization, everyday life and the survival of capitalism: Lefebvre, Gramsci and the problematic of hegemony”Capitalism, Nature, Socialism13(2) 117–149
57.
KleinN, 2007The Shock Doctrine (Picador, New York)
58.
KlijnE-HSteijnBEdelenbosJ, 2010, “The impact of network management on outcomes in governance networks”Public Administration881063–1082
59.
KokxAvan KempenR, 2009, “Joining forces in urban restructuring: Dealing with collaborative ideals and role conflicts in Breda, The Netherlands”Environment and Planning A411234–1250
60.
KrätkeM RThomasP, 2011, “Antonio Gramsci's contribution to a critical economics”Historical Materialism1963–105
61.
LaclauEMouffeC, 2001Hegemony and Socialist Strategy2nd edition (Verso, London)
62.
LaguerreM S, 2011Network Governance of Global Regions (Routledge, New York)
63.
LashS, 2002, “Foreword: Individualization in a non-linear mode”, in Individualization: Institutionalized Individualism and its Social and Political Consequences Eds BeckUBeck-GernsheimE (Sage, London) pp vii–xiii
64.
LashS, 2007, “Power after hegemony: Cultural studies in mutation?”Theory, Culture and Society2455–78
65.
LawlerJBilsonA, 2010Social Work Management and Leadership (Routledge, Abingdon, Oxon)
66.
LeadbeaterC, 2000Living on Thin Air: The New Economy (Penguin Books, London)
67.
LotiaNHardyC, 2008, “Critical perspectives on collaboration”, in The Oxford Handbook of Inter-organizational Relations Eds CropperSEbersMHuxamCRingSmith P (Oxford University Press, Oxford) pp 366–389
68.
LowndesV, 2001, “Rescuing Aunt Sally: Taking institutional theory seriously in urban politics”Urban Studies381953–1971
69.
MacLeodG, 2001, “Beyond soft institutionalism: Accumulation, regulation, and their geographical fixes”Environment and Planning A331145–1167
70.
MacleodGGoodwinM, 1999, “Reconstructing an urban and regional political economy: On the state, politics, scale, and explanation”Political Geography18697–730
MarinettoM, 2003, “Governing beyond the centre: A critique of the Anglo-governance school”Political Studies51592–608
73.
MarshD, 2008, “Understanding British government: Analysing competing models”British Journal of Politics and International Relations10251–268
74.
MarshD, 2011, “The new orthodoxy: The differentiated polity model”Public Administration8932–48
75.
MarshDRhodesR A W, 1992Policy Networks in British Government (Oxford University Press, Oxford)
76.
MitchellD, 2003The Right to the City: Social Justice and the Fight for Public Space (The Guilford Press, New York)
77.
MoranM, 2010, “Policy-making in an interdependent world”, in New Directions in Political Science Ed. HayC (Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke Hants) pp 25–42
78.
MorganKReesGGarmiseS, 1999, “Networking for local economic development”, in The New Management of British Local Governance Ed. StokerG (Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hants) pp 181–196
79.
MortonA D, 2007, “Disputing the geopolitics of the states system and global capitalism”Cambridge Review of International Affairs20599–617
80.
MortonA D, 2010, “The continuum of passive revolution”Capital and Class34315–342
81.
MortonA D, 2011Revolution and State in Modern Mexico: The Political Economy of Uneven Development (Rowman and Littlefield, Plymouth, NJ)
82.
OliverD, 1991, “Active citizenship in the 1990s”Parliamentary Affairs44157–171
RhodesR A W, 1997Understanding Governance: Policy Networks, Governance, Reflexivity and Accountability (Open University Press, Milton Keynes, Bucks)
85.
RhodesR A W, 2000, “Governance and public administration”, in Debating Governance: Authority, Steering and Democracy Ed. PierreJ (Oxford University Press, Oxford) pp 54–90
86.
RhodeR A W, 2007, “Understanding governance ten years on”Organization Studies281243–1264
87.
SassoonShowstack A, 2000Gramsci and Contemporary Politics: Beyond Pessimism of the Intellect (Routledge, London)
88.
SimonR, 2010, “Passive revolution, perestroika, and the emergence of the New Russia”Capital and Class34429–448
89.
SørensenETorfingJ, 2009, “Making governance networks effective and democratic through metagovernance”Public Administration87234–258
90.
StoneC N, 1989Regime Politics: Governing Atlanta (University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KA)
91.
StoneC N, 2004, “It's more than the economy after all: Continuing the debate about urban regimes”Journal of Urban Affairs261–19
92.
StoneC N, 2009, “Who is governed? Local citizens and the political order of cities”, in Theories of Urban Politics2nd edition, Eds DaviesJ SImbroscioD L (Sage, London) pp 257–273
93.
ThomasP, 2009The Gramscian Moment: Philosophy, Hegemony and Marxism (Brill, Leiden)
94.
ThompsonG F, 2003Between Hierarchies and Markets: The Logic and Limits of Network Forms of Organization (Oxford University Press, Oxford)
95.
TillyC, 1984Big Structures, Large Processes, Huge Comparisons (Russell Sage Foundation, New York)
96.
WebberR, 2007, “The metropolitan habitus: Its manifestations, locations, and consumption profiles”Environment and Planning A39182–207
97.
WilsonH, 1963Speech to the Labour Party Conference Scarborough, 1 October
98.
WrightJParryJMathersJJonesSOrfordJ, 2006, “Assessing the participatory potential of Britain's New Deal for Communities”Policy Studies27347–361
