Establishing cross-border co-operation between professional organizations: Police, fire brigades and emergency health services in Dutch border regions

Abstract

This article explores the conditions under which local and regional governments will establish and sustain cross-border cooperation in the fields of police, fire fighting and emergency health services. It argues that understanding this type of cross-border cooperation requires a focus on the way in which professionals define and apply their professional standards in cross-border contexts. Moreover, it requires a focus on individual organizations and professionals working in them, rather than 'government' or 'the state' as a whole, since cross-border cooperation in these areas typically develops as a result of disparate and unconnected initiatives taken by governmental actors in a given border region. Based on four studies of cross-border cooperation in Dutch border regions, we argue that differences in legal, organizational and cultural backgrounds between the participating countries can be and are overcome by street-level professionals and their organizations, who act as 'regionauts' in exploring opportunities for cross-border cooperation. In this type of 'bottom-up' cross-border cooperation , motivation among participants is the key to establishing co

Obstacles to achieving cross-border tourism governance: A multi-scalar approach focusing on the German-Czech borderlands

“…They locally empower themselves in the cross-border tourism governance landscape via contextual knowledge, personal contacts between policy-makers, and improvisation. These results confirm previous findings that when it comes to the local level and the case of project arrangements, informal contacts and trust relations reduce net transaction costs, hence facilitating cross-border information exchange in tourism (Altinay & Bowen, 2006;Princen et al, 2016;Trippl, 2010). This is not, however, the case when it comes to structural cross-border destination governance.…”

“…While the dependency of cross-border arrangements such as Euroregions on national structures is regularly noted, Princen et al (2016) call for a broader focus to understand crossborder governance outcomes. They argue that cross-border cooperation is framed in complex Pre-print of the article, published as: , Obstacles to achieving cross-border tourism governance: A multi-scalar approach focusing on the German-Czech borderlands.…”

“…Ambulances are officially not allowed to cross the German-Dutch border due to German laws prohibiting cross-border transport of certain medications. In practice, however, ambulances cross the border despite such rules since local practitioners assess the necessity to align the regional healthcare system themselves (Princen et al, 2016). Conversely, the importance of individuals in adapting to cross-border governance complexities may also make such processes vulnerable to a variety of factors, such as linguistic differences or the willingness of key stakeholder to cooperate in the first place.…”

“…Rather, it may result through decentralized and contextual processes occurring within formal cooperation frameworks (Perkmann, 1999;Princen et al, 2016;Tölle, 2013). This intricate scalar composition of cross-border cooperation regularly leads to high net transaction costs for coordinating between multiple stakeholders with different power positions (Hooghe & Marks, 2003).…”

9. The politics of global policing

“…First there had been a qualitative shift in policework whereby international police cooperation had become extensive and routine, thus establishing the conditions for a transnational professional community. This was true in Europe (Anderson and den Boer 1994;Anderson et al 1996;;Deflem's (2000Deflem's ( , 2002Fijnaut 1993;2004;Nogala 2001, Pincen et al 2014Sheptycki, 1995;1998), the USA (Andreas and Nadelmann 2007) and in other regions Ganapathy and Broadhurst, 2008;Hufnagel 2013Hufnagel , 2014). There was also the increasing global presence of international police missions, sometimes under the auspices of the United Nations and often with the substantial participation of non-state agencies (Goldsmith and Sheptycki, 2007;Tanner and Dupont 2014).…”