Amer Kurtović, a researcher and the deputy director of the Social Sciences Research Center at International Burch University, presented research titled Geography v. Policy: A Study of the Drivers of Local Cross Border Cooperation in the Western Balkans at The 2024 Regional Studies Association’s Annual Conference on topic Global Challenges, Regional Collaboration and the Role of Places, held in Florence, Italy from June 11 to June 14.
The Regional Studies Association’s Annual Conference is held in partnership with the Department of Economics and Business Sciences and Department of Architecture, University of Florence, Italy. The four-day conference brought together academics and policymakers to exchange news, views and research findings from the fields of regional studies and science, regional and economic development, policy and planning. There was representation from around 50 different global territories.
The paper explores the drivers of cross border cooperation by various actors, most notably municipalities and local civil society organizations.
Over the past 15 years, the European Union has invested millions of euros into fostering cross-border projects in this region, aiming to bridge divides and promote regional development. Despite extensive funding and numerous projects, the underlying factors that drive the formation of cooperative consortia have remained largely unexplored—until now.
The research employs a dual approach: a comprehensive review of past projects using Mill’s indirect method of difference and a series of in-depth semi-structured interviews with project lead partners. Additionally, participant observation during the consortia development phase of several contemporary project proposals provides valuable insights into the decision-making processes.
Preliminary results indicated that the vast majority of consortia relied on geographic determinants or topical policy drivers, either as a result of or despite project-specific determinants or needs, which is consistent with the parameters of cross border cooperation programmes.
Additionally, this research developed a spectrum of the various types of consortium composition decisions that can be taken based on these two major categories of drivers.
During the visit to Italy, Kurtović also met with other colleagues and other partner organizations to discuss existing collaboration and opportunities for future cooperation.
The abstract of the paper is available here.