Using Social Network Analysis to Investigate Local Stakeholder Dynamics: A Practical Handbook with Case Studies from Laos, Peru, Switzerland, and Kenya.

This handbook provides a practice-oriented guide to the preparation, planning, implementation, analysis, and interpretation of social network analysis (SNA) in environmental governance contexts. It is intended for applied, transformation-oriented research and draws on case studies from the Wyss Academy for Nature Solutionscapes to illustrate how SNA can contribute to more coherent, inclusive, and evidence-based governance. The handbook explains the theoretical foundations of SNA and shows how network boundaries can be defined, stakeholders identified and selected, relational data collected, and descriptive as well as inferential network analyses applied. It also introduces how SNA can be used to reveal communication patterns, influence structures, coordination, power asymmetries, and structural gaps among stakeholders. Overall, the handbook is intended to support practitioners in conducting SNA and, in doing so, contribute to strengthening stakeholder engagement, supporting adaptive governance, and fostering sustainability transformations in complex social-ecological systems.