ESTONIA-SOUTHERN FINLAND CROSS-BORDER REGION: WHAT KIND OF CROSS-BORDER INTEGRATION IS TAKING PLACE? AN ANALYSIS FROM EXPERTS IN CROSS-BORDER COOPERATION

Since the emergence of the first European community initiatives in the form of Interreg (European Territorial Cooperation), cross-border regions have become laboratories of European integration. There is extensive empirical research on the evolution of cross-border cooperation and how cross-border regions are constructed. Also, in the last two decades a more social and day-to-day approach in the study of these cross-border regions has gained attention, putting forward a more bottom-up focus to complement institutional analysis, since European cross-border cooperation evolves through both formal and informal processes developing interrelatedly. In this paper we adopt a social capital approach to analyse how cross-border integration is constructed among experts involved in institutional cooperation in the border region of Southern Finland and Estonia. Using mixed methodology based on semi-structured interviews and social network analysis, our findings reflect different patterns of border behaviour, all of which have significant value as opportunities for greater European integration.