Nineteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

While information sharing is an important way for individuals and organizations to gain resources, increase their capacity, and potentially have influence on others in local decision making. However, the mechanisms of how information travel among different actors in local decision making concerning urban transport is not well-understood. In this paper I draw on social capital theory and employ social network analysis to investigate how different actors control and share information with others based on their position in the network. Individual position in the network is important to understanding how and when they receive and share information and how and to what extent they can influence others are very important in decision making process. Data was generated from interviews conducted with 28 participants in the decision making concerning the project under study and documents from the project. This data served as basis for doing a social network analysis among two networks meeting and information sharing among participants. Overall, the results show that the networks appear centralized around four main actors with the highest centralities- two planners and two politicians. The findings have several implications for local decision making in the municipality.