ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews recent British and other European literature on policy networks and asks two questions: where are we now, and where do we go? The next section of the chapter summarizes current approaches to the study of networks and the attendant debate. In the third section it is argued that these approaches are characterized by the assumptions that networks are given facts from which you can read off individual beliefs and actions; a focus on routines, not change; a tendency to build elaborate typologies; and an emphasis on managing networks. In the fourth section, an alternative approach is proposed, rooted in an antifoundational epistemology. It is suggested that the notions of tradition and narrative are central to under standing networks.
