Toward more effective regional networks: a multi-method study on top-down stimulated networks within the Dutch public-policy areas of education and employment

Regional networks have become a popular way for the Dutch central government to translate national ambitions into regional policies and actions. This thesis focuses on regional networks in the public-policy fields of education and employment, which consist of various actors, including schools, local governments and businesses. This thesis provides better understanding of both the organization and effects of regional networks, and the attempts of the central government to ‘work across organizational boundaries,’ so as to facilitate these networks. Strategies for making better use of regional networks are offered. Its findings are relevant to regional networks that are stimulated top-down by central government, as well as to regional networks that arise bottom-up, as a result of the decentralization of tasks to local governments.