  Public administration has yet to examine networks in terms of intervention,
where network mechanisms are manipulated to promote behavioral change and
improve social, organizational, and community outcomes. We argue that to
fulfill the potential of network scholarship in public administration, the
field requires a framework for intervention approaches tailored to the
relational and interdependent context of public problems. Building on Valente's
(2012) typology, we develop a framework for strategies of public sector network
intervention. First, we describe the core concepts in the theory of network
interventions found primarily in public health. Next, we expand the existing
typology of interventions to include macro-institutional strategies suited to
public administration settings. We then identify extant public sector
literature that provides the building blocks for a framework for intervention.
Finally, we classify the modes of intervention along three dimensions: (i) the
processes targeted for change (network formation versus network effects), (ii)
the types of nodes in the network (organizations versus individuals), and (iii)
the level at which the intervention operates (macro versus micro). We provide
scholars and practitioners with a useful way to conceptualize where, why, and
how network interventions might be deployed.
