5th NORDIC-BALTIC CONFERENCE IN REGIONAL SCIENCE
GLOBAL-LOCAL INTERPLAY IN THE BALTIC SEA REGION
Pärnu, Estonia, October 1-4, 1998

Prof. John Storm Pedersen, Soren Adamsen, Lars Fuglsang
West Zealand Business Development Center
Alleen 15 , DK-4180 SORO, Denmark
Tel.: 45 57 87 23 23    Fax: 45 57 87 23 25
E-mail: vec@vestoml.dk

The starting point of this paper is an examination of the patterns of economic support from Western countries to the Baltic States and Poland. Focus is on support given to regional and local projects. Through this investigation the paper seeks to analyse elements of the social division of labour in the region.
The method is the following: Local and regional interest organisations fron Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland are asked to list 10 important projects within their domain supported by Western organisations. They are requested to name the most important donors, what they see as the most important competencies to participate in a project, most important advantages and most important barries. Interest organisations of local and regional authorities in Denamrk, Sweden and Finland are asked the same type of questions and a questionnaire is sent to all the appointed projects - including questions about budgets.
Based on these investigations, a list of the most typical projects, the most important donors, political actors, competencies and barries is computerised. Interviews with important donors and political actors is carried out to check the results and help explain them.
Building on these results, the paper presents a sociological analysis of the most important social groups involved with international projects at the local and regional level in these countries. This analysis is checked against earlier results and theories of social division of labour.