Rethinking the relations between transfers and learning processes in eastern  Europe : Theories of “Europeanization” and changes in local development policies in Bulgaria (1990-2013)

Résumé 0

Various international efforts to influence the local planning and development policies conducted in Bulgaria since the end of Communism up to the present day have had the objective of bringing local parties to adopt an endogenous, partnership-based conception of local development. A sociological analysis of the impact of these transfer programs on practices at the local level serves as the starting point for reviewing the theory of the relations between transfers and learning processes advanced in studies on “Europeanization.” Local case studies lay the groundwork for an alternative conceptualization that sees learning as an emerging, cumulative effect of a combination of social processes. The latter involve not only various forms of transfer, both hierarchical and voluntary, but also endogenous forces such as private-public forms of cooperation, the diffusion owing to the domestic impact of actions undertaken by local players (representative and professional organizations) who have been won over to the model’s cause, or even the interplay of forces in a democratized municipal politics.