Transportation policy networks in cross-border regions. First results from a social network analysis in Luxembourg and the Greater Region

Despite continuing processes of economic and political integration in the European Union (EU), borders have been proven to be persistent. Politically backed and financially supported by the EU, cross-border regions are subject to economic and cultural coalescence. However, the established top-down crossborder policy network structures do not necessarily lead to the results originally aimed at. Policy networks are supposed to make the proclaimed economic, socio-cultural, and spatial EU integration process work on a local level. By empirically analysing cross-border policy networks in one specific though highly central policy domain – the public transportation – we reveal contradictions/inconsistencies and impediments caused by the „border effect? and the complex nature of a specific cross-border policy network in the field of public transportation. With the technique of the social network analysis we trace and discuss such a kind of network. Our empirical findings lead us to critically examine what Hooghe and Marks (2003) describe as „type-II-governance? in crossborder regions.