Measuring social network influence on power relations in collaborative planning: A case study of Beijing City, China

Social media has recently become a networked public sphere for social interactions and power struggles in planning practice. However, little research has been done to understand the impact of social media on power relations in collaborative planning. This study uses the Bell and Drum Tower planning practice in Beijing as a case study to elaborate on whether and how social media empowers citizens, experts, and third parties to influence decision-making and promote a communicative planning process. It develops a mixed-methods approach that combines web scraping, social network analysis, and interviews to examine networked power generated by social media. It applies the three dimensions of a network (structure, symmetry, and strength) to measure new forms of power imbalances. The findings show that experts and journalists hold a significant amount of networked power and that social actors can enhance their influence by managing and controlling information flows. Power inequalities exist in the networked public sphere but shift away from governments to other actors, yet without jeopardizing the ultimate decision-making on the ground by the government. This study bridges the gap between network power theory and network science, turning the metaphor of network power into an evidence-based analysis based on a quantitative approach.