Regulatory networks, population level effects and threshold models of collective action

In Regulatory Networks, Population Level Effects and Threshold Models of Collective Action, Mark Fenwick explores the question of whether we might push the network metaphor further and examine whether regulatory networks exhibit “network dynamics”. The study of networks dynamics is an inter-disciplinary field that has emerged at the intersection between sociology, social psychology and economics. The chapter suggests that one form of network dynamic, namely a threshold model of collective action, can be helpful in providing a new conceptual vocabulary for describing various features of regulatory networks. In particular, it allows us to move away from accounts that regard networks as expressing the collective normative preferences of participants and ideas of contractual consent.