Visiting Professor Sara Svensson publishes article in Regional & Federal Studies on contact networks within European borderlands

In this Regional & Federal Studies article, Sara Svensson uses analysis and data from her 2013 dissertation, but enriches the analysis by also using the network metric ‘connectivity’, which was introduced in a a previous article written jointly by Svensson and CEU Center for Network Studies Research Fellow Card Nordlund in Journal of European Integration (37:3, pp 371-389).  The present article discusses determinants of local government contact networks within cross-border cooperation organizations (Euroregions). She argues that even in favorable 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.

The article is available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13597566.2015.1043995#.VXk_r...