Hybrid network governance: methodologies of studying online and offline networking in global climate education policy

Policy networks connect policy actors across spaces and organizations to advance policy agendas. While much is known about forms of network governance, there is still a lack of research to date on how networks work across online and offline spaces, and the ways that this hybridity of networking arrangements may be influencing policy agendas. In the field of climate communication and education, a range of actors are involved in the network governance of United Nations policy programs through both online and offline networks. In this paper, we examine policy actors’ online and offline hybrid network governance activity. We compare social network analysis of Twitter/X data with broader network ethnography analysis to consider how the focused inclusion of online spaces in network analysis can contribute to a different understanding of the role and functionality of actors in network governance. This paper highlights the value of integrating network ethnography and social network analysis to understand hybrid network governance and actor dynamics in global education policy.