Paper Titles & Abstracts

Sweden's (and other states') EU membership has spurred a process where competences of its central government have been dispersed both upwards to the EU-level and downwards to sub-national regions (akin to multi-level governance). This development has contributed to an emphasis, by policy-makers and in key strategic documents, on the importance of utilizing vertical and horizontal policy-networks in order to create more efficient policies. From a sub-national regional perspective (which is the focus of this paper) this fairly 'messy' governance structure poses both possible benefits and challenges. On the one hand, it may provide an additional 'toolbox', which can be utilized by regions to meet increased expectations in areas such as regional growth and development. On the other hand, its complexity put demands on regions' ability to adapt and operate within the various policy networks. Relating to the latter, previous research has found that the extent and type of regional engagement (here termed 'regional action') in the governance structure of the EU vary, both in extent and substance, even between regions whom are otherwise comparable to one another. By incorporating the notion of bridging social capital with aspects of the micro-fusion framework, this paper presents an outline for a theoretical framework, with the ambition to explain why comparable regions adapt and act differently in the governance structure of the EU; here conceptualized as broad and narrow forms of regional action.