The power of networks for social change

'Big Society' is dependent on social networks, says a leading UK economist

Mani Bahra
Guardian Professional, Tuesday 24 August 2010 15.52 BST
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The power of networks for social change
This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 15.52 BST on Tuesday 24 August 2010.

Before setting out to change the world, politicians should first of all look at how to interpret it correctly - says a leading UK economist.

The success of government initiatives, from the "Big Society" to action on binge drinking, rests on the understanding of how social networks change our behaviour.

In his essay published by the RSA, economist professor Paul Ormerod argues that the failure to understand "network effects" partly explains the economic crisis and ineffectiveness of policies in delivering change.

N squared - Public policy and the power of networks follows on from the governments's new research into so-called 'nudge' based policies from its behavioural insight team.

It addresses how many implemented policies ignore networks - resulting in misleading results.

The upshot is that public investment goes into the wrong interventions, or to policies being abandoned before any effects take place.

For example, in one of his studies on binge drinking, Ormerod suggests that binge drinking spreads rapidly among groups of friends. Policies aimed at tackling the problem need to take seriously the role of peer pressure and not just individual interventions.

Ormerod goes on to stress the need in understanding networks, by proposing a shift in the approach to public policy.

Ideas and actions

He suggests moving away from large-scale, expensive interventions which often have minimal effects on outcomes, towards smaller interventions whose impact can be magnified through ideas and actions across networks of people.

Ormerod says that by ignoring network effects, we carry on with the same model, spending vast amounts of money with a hit-or-miss success rate - as evidenced from the past 60 years.

"Politicians have sought to change the world. The point is that they need to interpret it correctly. The potential gains from more effective policies built on a better scientific understanding of how the world operates are enormous," he says.