Cooperation against the odds: A study on the political economy of local development in a country with small firms and small farms

在不利于合作的环境中，如何才能让经济行为体进行合作，以实现互利的结果？这是我在论文中提出的关键问题，也是我作为ESRC博士后将在一系列出版物和活动中关注的问题。已有的合作理论表明，要克服合作障碍，要么需要强有力的正式制度框架，要么需要长期建立的信任文化。世界上许多地方都没有这两种特征。然而，当所有权结构支离破碎时，经济行动者之间的持续合作对经济发展进程很重要，对地方经济成果和国内政治动态都有重大影响。我通过在希腊四对案例研究领域的实地调查收集到的定性经验证据，来解决在不利环境中出现合作的难题。我比较了四个案例，在过去的30年里，经济参与者之间出现了特定类型的合作，而在其他方面类似（匹配）的案例中，这种合作模式没有发生。总的来说，我的项目依赖于86个半结构化访谈，以及文献证据、灰色文献和当地媒体。这一论点的一部分也进行了定量检验，使用了有关希腊每个城市合作程度和相关地方特征的全国统计数据。我认为，要克服困难开展合作，有两个要素是必要的。第一个是领导力。一小群跨越边界的主要行动者可以通过执行三种具体类型的困难和昂贵的活动，启动建立地方一级合作机构的进程。尽管在一个社区中，合作经常与同质性联系在一起，但我发现，成功的领导者往往是跨地区的、高技能的、关系良好的行动者，他们在某种程度上是所讨论领域的局外人。少数地方一级主要行动者的工作只有在促进宏观机构的框架内才能促进基础广泛、持续的合作。这是我在我的工作中发现的合作出现的第二个必要条件。至关重要的是，欧盟等超国家行为体可以提供这种促进宏观层面的机构。利用Ostrom（1990）的“促进性政治制度”概念，我认为，事实上，欧盟的农业和区域政策对希腊农业和旅游部门合作的出现发挥了重要的促进作用，在一定程度上弥补了国家制度框架的不足。我的ESRC podstphd奖学金的目的是通过以下方式最大限度地发挥我博士项目研究结果的影响：*在同行评审的期刊文章中发表我的研究结果，并向学术出版商提交一份出书建议*发表一份20页的总结报告，突出我的分析的政策含义，并展示我在高合作案例研究领域的最佳实践*组织一个关于“地方发展的政治经济学”的跨学科研讨会，并提交一份报告*在与英国和希腊的研究机构或部门/地方协会合作组织的公共活动中展示我的政策相关结论*在三次国际学术会议上展示我的研究成果*通过与我的导师Waltraud Schelkle进行一个小的额外研究项目，将我的发现与有关危机时期制度弹性的更广泛的文献联系起来。以我的博士项目为基础

How is it possible to get economic actors to cooperate in order to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes in settings that are unfavourable to cooperation? This is the key question that I address in my thesis and that I would focus on in a range of publications and events as an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow.Established theories of cooperation suggest that overcoming the obstacles to cooperation requires either a robust framework of formal institutions or a long-established culture of trust. Many places in the world are endowed with neither of those characteristics. Yet, when ownership structures are fragmented, sustained cooperation among economic actors is important for processes of economic development, with major implications for both local economic outcomes and domestic political dynamics.I approach the puzzle of the emergence of cooperation in unfavourable settings by drawing on qualitative empirical evidence collected through fieldwork in four pairs of case study areas in Greece. I compare four cases where specific types of cooperation among economic actors emerged in the last 30 years with four otherwise similar (matching) cases where such patterns of cooperation failed to occur. In total, my project relies on 86 semi-structured interviews as well as on documentary evidence, grey literature and the local press. A part of the argument is also tested quantitatively, using nation-wide statistical data about the degree of cooperation and relevant place-based characteristics in each municipality of Greece.I argue that for cooperation to emerge against the odds, two elements are necessary. The first one is leadership. A small group of boundary-spanning leading actors can trigger a process of creating local-level cooperative institutions by performing three specific types of difficult and costly activities. Despite the frequent association of cooperation with homogeneity in a community, I find that successful leaders tend to be translocally embedded, highly skilled, well connected actors, who are in some way outsiders to the area in question. The work of a small group of local-level leading actors can only catalyse broad-based, sustained cooperation if it is nested within a framework of facilitative macro-level institutions. This is the second necessary condition for the emergence of cooperation that I identify in my work. Crucially, supranational actors, such as the EU, can provide such facilitative macro-level institutions. Using Ostrom's (1990) concept of "facilitative political regimes", I argue that, indeed, the EU's agricultural and regional policies have played an important enabling role for the emergence of cooperation in the Greek agricultural and tourism sectors, to an extent compensating for deficiencies in the national institutional framework.The aim of my ESRC Podstdoctoral Fellowship would be to maximise the impact of the findings of my PhD project through:* Publishing my findings in peer-reviewed journal articles and submitting a book proposal to an academic publisher* Publishing a 20-page summary report highlighting the policy implications of my analysis and presenting best practices from my high-cooperation case study areas* Organising an interdisciplinary workshop on "the political economy of local development" and submitting a proposal for a special issue of a peer-reviewed journal * Presenting my policy-relevant conclusions at public events that will be organised in collaboration with research institutions or sectoral/ local associations in both the UK and Greece* Presenting my research output in three international academic conferences* Linking my findings to the broader literature on institutional resilience in times of crisis by conducting a small additional research project with my mentor, Waltraud Schelkle, building on my PhD project.