Comparing regionalisms within Europe: Balkans, Baltics, Benelux and Nordics in the context of multi-level governance

• Main Authors: Elken, Mari, Vukasovic, Martina
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: Social Sciences; Nordics; Benelux; Balkans; Baltics; policy convergence; policy coordination; higher education; comparative policy analysis; Norway; Iceland
• Online Access: https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8050086; http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8050086

European policy arena is an exceptional multi-level governance context (Piattoni 2010), comprising organizational, national, regional (within Europe), and European governance levels, all of which are also embedded in a ‘world society’ (Meyer et al. 1997). Some of these levels can be further expanded depending on the local circumstances, e.g. the organizational level into subunits, or the national into the federal/state/regional levels. Interaction of actors and ideas takes place across them and can be mutually reinforcing – driving policy and organizational changes in very similar directions; or creating barriers when preferences diverge. The regional level is of particular interest here; it can act as a platform for common translation of European “pressures” to fit the specificities in the region, leading to convergence within the region but divergence from other parts of Europe. It can also have no specific consequence on the extent of policy convergence within the region, i.e. convergence would primarily be towards European models and the region would largely be bypassed. Although interesting patterns of convergence and divergence have already been identified (Dobbins and Knill 2009; Gornitzka and Maassen 2011; Westerheijden et al. 2010), and while some ideas about the relevance of political, cultural, and socio-economic characteristics of countries have been put forward (Heinze and Knill 2007), a more systematic exploration of the importance of regions for higher education policy coordination has been missing. The present study analyses four distinct European regions: Balkans (former Yugoslavia + Albania), Baltics (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania), Benelux (Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) and the Nordics (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden). These regions were selected due to the social, political, economic and cultural similarities between the countries, and because they are externally recognized as regions. The study focuses on approaches to and the outcomes of policy coordination within ...