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The paper analyses the processes of implementing territorial governance using the example of local action groups (LAGs) supported by the LEADER+ Pilot Programme (2005–2008) in Poland. It concludes that the partnership successes and dysfunctions observed resulted from the rationality on the part of bureaucrats and local stakeholders, which may be explained in terms of second‐generation rational choice theories. The main role in the partnerships was that played by local authorities, which often sought to retain control over resources and processes. Involvement of the private sector and local inhabitants was found to be limited. However, the partnership established did lay a sound foundation for the use of the European Union structural funds, even though they did not prove effective in launching a truly participative model of the territorial governance.

2014): 'territorial governance, networks and power: cross-sectoral partnerships in rural poland', Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography 96 (4): 345-361.ABStrAct. research on the operation of territorial governance and rural development programmes is dominated by qualitative methodologies, paying little attention heretofore to the characteristics and structures of new horizontal and vertical relationship formations that are the explicit objective of the governance and rural development model. Seeking to address this deficit in the literature, this article adds to a small number of existing contributions that use social network analysis (SnA) to examine the role of inter-organizational networks in shaping geographic functional regions in the context of governance. rooted in the methodological perspective of SnA, the analysis focuses on relations between local actors participating in three area-based rural partnerships in poland, which are conceptualized as territorially embedded institutional network clusters. the structure of inter-sectoral relations, understood as interactions (competition, conflict, coordination, cooperation, and control) and flows (information, financial, human, or tangible resources), between the institutional partners of these partnerships is examined. Analysing in detail attributes of network relations, the article identifies structural characteristics of the area-based partnerships, such as manifestations of how diverse local resources are engaged and how dominance by traditional powerful stakeholders can be overcome by network structures. Structural dynamics and transformations that represent expressions and manifestations of how territorially embedded governance networks are expected to operate are important areas of inquiry in political geography. in this context, the particular empirical and theoretical capacity of SnA is illuminated in this article as part of a broader presentation of primary field data on how network governance and rural development is taking shape in central and eastern europe.