Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Gonzalez-Gomez, Teresa

Titel

ESTONIA-SOUTHERN FINLAND CROSS-BORDER REGION:WHAT KIND OF CROSS-BORDER INTEGRATION IS TAKING PLACE? AN ANALYSIS FROM EXPERTS IN CROSS-BORDER COOPERATION

Ist Teil von

• Trames (Tallinn), 2018-06, Vol.22 (2), p.185-209

Ort / Verlag

Tallinn: Estonian Academy Publishers

Erscheinungsjahr

2018

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Elektronische Zeitschriftenbibliothek - Frei zugängliche E-Journals

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Since the emergence of the first European community initiatives in the form of Interreg (European Territorial Cooperation), cross-border regions have become laboratories of European integration. There is extensive empirical research on the evolution of cross-border cooperation and how cross-border regions are constructed. Also, in the last two decades a more social and day-to-day approach in the study of these cross-border regions has gained attention, putting forward a more bottom-up focus to complement institutional analysis, since European cross-border cooperation evolves through both formal and informal processes developing interrelatedly. In this paper we adopt a social capital approach to analyse how cross-border integration is constructed among experts involved in institutional cooperation in the border region of Southern Finland and Estonia. Using mixed methodology based on semi-structured interviews and social network analysis, our findings reflect different patterns of border behaviour, all of which have significant value as opportunities for greater European integration. Keywords: cross-border cooperation, social capital, social network analysis, European integration, Estonia, Southern-Finland