Lost in transformation: place-based projects in the EU’s multi-level system
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Date
2020
Authors
Keller, Judit
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Abstract
The place-based approach has been the guiding principle of the EU’s Cohesion Policy for a decade. Building on the idea that place matters, the place-based narrative advocates that socio-spatial inequalities can be overcome by the production of place-tailored public goods designed and implemented through integrated and deliberative policy decisions. The role of external agents is to help local actors to mobilize resources “from below” through an enabling regulative framework. Within the EU’s multi-level governance system, the EU can provide incentives for place-based policies, but the implementation of these interventions is strongly embedded in national policy regimes. This chapter explores the way Hungary’s domestic institutional environment, being at odds with Cohesion policy’s place-based approach, could impair a progressive, place-based initiative to further objectives on social cohesion. The chapter scrutinizes the institutional evolution of Give Kids a Chance program, an initiative to tackle child poverty, whose priorities and governance modes have been reshaped under the constraining effects of the domestic policy landscape. Centralization, selective decentralization in the form of outsourcing policy delivery and disinvestment in social policy are identified as trends in the Hungarian public policy to have contributed to the loss of place-based program elements and coordination mechanisms of EU funded Give Kids a Chance program. Empirical evidence for the chapter was gathered in the frame of a post-doctoral research project (PD 112659) and the RELOCAL project: Resituating the Local in Cohesion and Territorial Development H2020 Framework project.
Description
Keywords
hely-alapú fejlesztés , kohéziós politika , gyermekszegénység , szegénység , centralizáció , társadalmi egyenlőtlenségek , többszintű kormányzás
Citation
Nunes Silva Carlos (szerk.) Contemporary Trends in Local Governance: Reform, Cooperation and Citizen Participation. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2020 pp. 195-216 (ISBN 978-3-030-52516-3)