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Social Capital, Learning and EU Regional Policy Networks: Evidence from Greece*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2014

Christos J. Paraskevopoulos
Christos J. Paraskevopoulos*
Affiliation:
London School of Economics and Political Science
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Extract

This Article Discusses The Importance Of Social Learning For Eu public policy-making in general and regional policy in particular. The first section analyses the implications of the learning process for EU regional policy and examines its social and institutional prerequisites. Section two introduces the concepts of social capital and institutional networks as components crucial for the learning process and socialization function. The third section, based on the analysis of the role of social learning, delineates the multi-level system of governance in EU regional policy. The fourth section presents empirical evidence from Greek regions on the role of social learning in the implementation of EU regional policy (Structural Funds) programmes. Finally, the last section draws conclusions on the role of social learning in EU regional policy and lessons from the Greek experience.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , April 2001 , pp. 253 - 278
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 2001

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Footnotes

*

An earlier version of this article was presented as a paper to the 26th ECPR Workshop on the ‘Institutional Analyses of European Integration’, University of Warwick, 23–28 March 1998.

References

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37 C. J. Paraskevopoulos, 2001, op. cit.

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44 Indicative figures: three-year average in PPS per inhabitant is just 35.2 compared with the 48.1 country average, while its 1993 unemployment rate is one of the highest in Greece, 9.0%. See CEC, 1994, ibid.

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