ABSTRACT
This volume aspires to contribute to the theoretical base of public networks and in the long run to the theory of networks. As Abraham Kaplan (1964, 295–296) maintains, “A theory is a symbolic construction . . . guiding the enterprise of discovering new and more powerful generalizations". In approaching this task this volume incorporates both qualitative and quantitative research cultures, bridging research questions, data analysis modes, and methods of inference (Goertz and Mahoney 2012). With an attempt to bridge both research approaches, we bring this volume to a close by: 1) presenting the issues that the papers in this volume have advanced; 2) identifying one set of the unanswered issues in network theory, that of their limitations; 3) raising the even broader question of the status/role of the public sphere nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and public agencies as they operate in the age of the network; and, 4) identification of a series of issues in network theorizing that remain. These include: a) the confusion between “a network” and “to network”, b) the huge, “public value” question in network performance, c) the distinctiveness of networks in the public arena, d) operational management issues within these structures, and e) the future of networks with open-source information using electronic formats. There is clearly more that needs to be done.
