ABSTRACT
This chapter critically reflects on the notion of ‘intermediaries’ and their roles within socio-technical networks. Defined simply, an intermediary operates in-between other actors, making connections and reordering relationships between institutions, individuals and even ‘things’, like wastewater. Their significance in planning and sustainability fields is bound-up with the rise of network governance as a political project and network approaches within social science to understand how complex social and political organisations work. The chapter provides an overview of the variety of intermediaries identified in the planning literature: their roles, impact and influence on networks; their interests and motivations; and their importance. The chapter covers the following topics: contexts of intermediation; exploration of the definitions of intermediaries; an overview of the perceived impacts of intermediation in environmental planning; an examination of the conceptual limits of intermediation and intermediaries; and finally, a brief consideration of future directions in intermediary research, emphasising the need to consider the politics shaping their emergence, activity and impacts.
