Urban design, spatial planning, natural resource management and other processes important to sustainability, typically involve many actors from different domains who are not all connected by hierarchy and whose behavior cannot easily be mandated. Thus, successful processes rely on networks of actors who collaborate and on the quality of their collaboration. To understand success factors or management failures and to improve existing structures it is thus crucial to understand the underlying formal and informal social networks. In many cases Social Network Analysis (SNA) has been used to provide answers to these questions.

This workshop goes beyond mere understanding of network structures but introduces a tool that allows the co-production of network knowledge for immediate use to solve sustainability problems and anticipate possible solutions. The workshop introduces approaches, which allow the participants to facilitate the use of SNA knowledge in diverse situations, using participatory, learning oriented network mapping exercise. Using the Net-Map method for diagnosis of collaborative relations between actors will be the baseline for change and for thinking potentialities or gaps to foster and negotiate collective and individual interests.

This workshop is a 3 hour workshop, the maximum number of attendees is 20. This workshop is oriented to researchers interested in participatory approaches of co-producing social knowledge. Professionals in the field of management, policy and design in urban areas, natural resources, environmental issues, public health other areas are welcome. After a brief introduction of the approaches, the participants are encouraged to share actual or potential cases where the actual use of network knowledge is planned in management situation is aimed for. We will conclude the workshop by proposing to the participants a co-design oriented approach to modify, complement or add relations to reach a sustainable goal based on network maps.