CPS Research Fellow publishes on health policy in border regions

An article by Sara Svensson, Research Fellow at the Center for Policy Studies, has been published in the journal Territory, Politics, Governance, a peer-reviewed journal of the Regional Studies Association.

The article titled 'Health Policy in Cross-border Cooperation Practices: The Role of Euroregions and Their Local Government members' assesses the prominence health policy as an area of cooperation in cross-border practices, and the potential of Euroregions (institutionalized cooperation between local governments in borderlands) to become key actors in emerging experimentalist governance systems facilitating healthcare cooperation. Drawing on different sources of data, it demonstrates the relatively low salience of health care compared to other policy areas, and argues that joint health policy in borderlands is likely to be primarily driven by policy actors other than Euroregions. That said, Euroregions have potentials to become more active in this area if motivations and trust in their own capacity changes, or funding is steered towards cooperation around health. The study serves as an illustrative example of the heterogeneity of actual and potential policy coordination that take place at the intersection of policy systems that are still dominated by states. The article draws on data collected for Sara Svensson’s dissertation, which was completed under the supervision of CPS Co-Director Andrew Cartwright 2008-2013.

The article is available online at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21622671.2015.1114962.