Research Centre at the University of Strathclyde and involving eight universities and two companies, explored whether and how EU Cohesion policy spending across differentiated regions affected the citizens’ perceptions of the Europe-an integration project. In particular, the project investigated how, on the one hand, (1) the ways in which the funding is used and its results communicated; and, on the other hand, (2) the characteristics of the regions where it is used (territorial, socio-economic, institutional), af-fect the ways in which the citizens perceive the EU.
It was based on truly cross-disci-plinary research, bringing together geographers, political scientists, regional and urban scholars, policy, communication and media experts, from both academia and practice. It was also built on a unique combi-nation of research methods, from surveys and statistical analysis, interviews and surveys with region-al policy stakeholders, focus groups with citizens, to novel methods for framing analysis in traditional and social media.
Given that the declining support for European integration in the wake of multiple crises engulfing the EU is very high on the political agen-da, COHESIFY not only produced new insights on the topic, but also attracted substantial interest from European policy-makers. As part of the project, our team carried out two case studies in the Dutch prov-inces of Flevoland and Limburg, developed a regional typology of EU identification, and shed light on the regional determinants of EU image.
More information: http://www.cohesify.eu
