The Bordered World of Cross-border Cooperation: The Determinants of Local Government Contact Networks within Euroregions

Abstract

The article discusses the determinants of local government contact networks within cross-border cooperation organizations (Euroregions). Relying on social capital theory, a combination of social network and qualitative analytical tools are applied on data from two Scandinavian and two East Central European cases. The analysis reveals that, even in favourable circumstances, contact networks are thin and Euroregions fail to develop into truly integrated political spaces. The analysis also shows that contact patterns on one side of the border, determined primarily by inter-municipal cooperation, will matter for how contact networks are formed across the border. The findings are important, as membership in a Euroregion is expected to foster cross-border political relationships that could have possible spillover effects in terms of encouraging policy cooperation outside the framework of the Euroregion, which in turn would enhance the likelihood of well-functioning cross-border governance spaces.

Key Words:

• European integration
• cross-border cooperation
• local government
• network analysis
• social capital

Acknowledgments

This article went through a very thorough revision process and I am grateful to the four anonymous reviewers who forced me to confront the shortcomings of the first version, and to the journal's editorial team for further guidance and advice. In addition, many thanks go to Péter Balogh, Gergő Medve-Bálint and Mario Munta for insightful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The name Svinesundskommittén was adopted in 2013. Previously the organization was known as Gränskommitten Østfold-Dalsland-Bohuslän.

2 CEUNet is a software tool under development at the Center for Network Science at Central European University, available at <http://cnslabs.ceu.hu/>.

3 See online Annex for information on interviewees.

4 After filling out the contact data, the mayors were asked to assess on a five-point scale how these contacts had changed compared with five years earlier, ranging from ‘much less frequent contacts’ to ‘much more frequent contacts’.

5 A survey from 2006 showed that many of them have bad oversight of these organizations. Hence, while the increased nesting of municipalities into inter-municipal organizations in this study is used as an indicator of strengthened networks and trust relations (i.e. social capital), it is also true that these organizations may weaken general societal transparency and political legitimacy (ECON Analyse, 2006).

6 For up-to-date research on this, see the publications coming out of the project EU Border Regions, funded by the EU's Seventh Framework Programme: <http://www.euborderregions.eu/>.

7 Scholars and practitioners interested in applying the connectivity measure may for instance use the CrossborderBlocker Windows software, which is freely available for download at <http://cnslabs.ceu.hu/>.