Who makes European Cohesion Policy: a practitioners’ learning perspective

Regional Studies, Regional Science

Fanny Sbaraglia¹ 

[1] Université libre de Bruxelles;

关键词: Policy instrument;    implementation;    European union;    policy learning;    Cohesion Policy;    European Social Fund (ESF);    sub-national level;   

DOI  :  10.1080/21681376.2016.1228474

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Through the European Social Fund (ESF), the European Union subsidizes social inclusion and occupational trainee projects. This policy instrument is formulated by European Union institutions and implemented by regions through a call for projects which requires innovative actions and a result-oriented strategy. It is a key vantage point to observe sub-national implementation of an European Union policy instrument in a sub-national practitioner’s perspective, a topic under-investigated in the literature. For a project to receive funding, sub-national practitioners must take the European Union requirements (accounting standards, evidence of innovation etc.) and their social needs into account. Against this backdrop, this research tackles an original question: how can local practitioners adapt their policy actions to fit with European Union requirements? Taking the region of Wallonia in Belgium as a case study, the ESF implementation is considered as a specific policy process in sub-national policy sectors. Adopting an in-depth qualitative perspective, this research contends that it depends on practitioners’ learning, practices and experience of past applications, their specific socio-economic context and income maximization.

【 授权许可】

Unknown