Notwithstanding such conceptual clarification, the role of local networks in
implementing national policies remains little understood or researched: social network
analysis can be so focused upon the minutiae of social relationships that the impact of
this upon policy implementation is ignored; policy network analysis tends to be
directed towards central rather than local policy matters, and in any case is conceptual
rather than empirical in outlook; and organization studies often seem more interested
in the implications for management style than policy outcomes. But if there is to be
progress in the exploration of local network partnerships, this needs to be underpinned
by a coherent framework for analysis. Such a framework was developed over a quarter
of a century ago by J. Kenneth Benson, Professor of Sociology at Missouri University,
in his seminal contributions on inter-organizational networks (Benson 1975, 1983). His
largely neglected contribution has considerable scope for application to the new
context of governance.