Part 1: Policy Network Analysis

A Policy Network Analysis is a social research tool that allows an individual or organization to gain more knowledge about a topic very quickly by identifying the key stakeholders, policymakers, connectors, and actors in a specific field and geographic area.

DVRPC is using Policy Network Analysis to understand "who is doing what where?" within the Greater Philadelphia Food System. By surveying many different people through a variety of methods (in-person, phone, online), DVRPC will be able to collect information about other projects, reports, programs, and efforts; create a mechanism to collect diverse recommendations; identify key actors to interview in-person; and detect gaps in research, support services, infrastructure, programs, or non-profit activities.

With help from the Food System Study Advisory Committee (SAC), an in-depth survey form was created. (See Small Group Discussion Results for a full listing of questions generated by the SAC.) SAC members picked the top three questions to ask a survey respondent if the surveyor had a limited amount of time with the respondent: "If you had five minutes to talk to a farmer, what would you ask her?"

The survey forms, tailored for different types of actors and stakeholders within the food system, are designed in an open-ended question format in hopes to do the following:

1. Quickly educate DVRPC on a topic previously unfamiliar to us;
2. Identify other relevant projects and partners, or people we should talk to;
3. Solicit recommendations from a variety of people regarding farming and food; and
4. Identify possible case study topics and/or best management practices that should be researched and profiled in our final report.

Survey respondents were asked to answer the questions from their own perspectives. For example, when asked what interesting case study we should include in the final report, a transportation planner suggested we look at the Alameda corridor in California as a case study in efficient transport of fresh foods (http://www.acta.org/).

This survey effort informs and shapes the subsequent parts of DVRPC's project. The final report aims to be accessible to a broad range of stakeholders (including people who may not consider themselves as stakeholders in the food system) by cataloguing Greater Philadelphia's multitude of projects and programs that continue to grow and expand, and creating case studies of best management practices implemented in other food systems.

The survey is now closed. DVRPC presented its preliminary results at the 9/12 SAC meeting.

Presentation - Part 1 Food Policy Network Analysis [.pdf 6.8M]