Responsibility and the Problem of Many Hands in Networks

In this chapter we will apply the conceptual framework developed in the first part of the book to an example of an occasional collection of agents. It concerns the rise and fall of a manure processing factory in the Netherlands during the 1990s-the PROMEST case. We will investigate whether it features a problem of many hands regarding forward-, and backward-looking responsibility. To analyse this case we will also employ the dimensions of organisational power and coordination considered in Chapter 3. We will discuss the question of whether, and if so to what extent, these dimensions are helpful in learning how to avoid PMHs.