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European Sociological Review 14:231-254 1998
© 1998 Oxford University Press

research-article

The Ecology of Collective Action and Regional Representation in the European Union

François Nielsen and Jane Salk

Professor Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3210, USA Tel: +919-962-5064; fax: 919-962-7568. e-mail: francois_nielsen{at}unc.edu
Associate Professor Département Stratégic et Management, École Supérieure des Sciences Économiques et Commerciales (ESSEC) Avenue Bernard Hirsch BP 105, 95021 Cergy-Pontoise, France Tel: +1-34-43-31-89; fax: +1-34-43-30-01. e-mail: salk{at}edu.essec.fr

We examine the emergence of regional information offices representing (subnational) regions of Europe near the administrative headquarters of the European Union in Brussels. Regional offices are viewed as instances of a new form of organization, and as indicating collective action on the basis of regional boundaries. We develop a theoretical model of regional collective action from which we derive a number of hypotheses relating characteristics of a region to the likelihood of regional collective action, as manifested by the opening of an office in Brussels. Logistic regression analyses of the presence or absence of representation for 183 regions yield results largely consistent with the theoretical model. Significant effects on the likelihood of representation are found for the following variables (directions): absolute size of the region (positive), size relative to the embedding country (negative), percentage of the labour force in industry (positive), share of Structural Funds per capita (negative), labour force diversity (negative), strength of subnational identification (positive), and regional autonomy (positive). The empirical results are interpreted in the context of the theoretical model of regional collective action, and within the broad European historical context.

Manuscript received: August 1, 1996.


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