Regional policy,social networks and informal structures

Abstract

This paper presents a study on regional development and innovation systems. The theoretical points of departure are gender theory and two perspectives from human geography and sociology: the theory of network governance for regional development and the theory of homosocial networks. The regional policy of the EU today is characterized by a strongly emphasized governance model: i.e., an orientation towards networks and cluster initiatives. The 2004–2007 regional development programme in Värmland, a Swedish county, is a template for this policy. Its basic principles included partnership engagements, networking, EU-specific linguistic usage and superstar rhetoric. However, this seemingly innovative regional policy has roots in traditional industrial society (ironworks and paper mills). The network-planning model allows informal social structures to re-enter the arena of regional planning. Gender equality in regional government policy was challenged by the presence of a homosocial shadow (seamy-side) structure, such as secret networks and clubs on the outside of the official organizations. Networks were also important in the reproduction of traditional power structures, male dominance and hegemony. One conclusion we reach is that networking can be used mutually as a progressive force and as a conservative tool among actors in the innovation of policy.

Keywords

Cluster politics elites gender equality homosocial homotopia networks

Introduction

This is an account of the process of formulation of a regional development programme. According to recent research on regional policy, the concept of cluster has been a point of departure for many of the development programmes since the turn of the century (see, inter alia, Ahedo, 2004; Asheim et al., 2006; Borrás and Tsagdis, 2008; Hallencreutz and Lundequist, 2003; Karlsson, 2008; Ketels, 2009; Porter, 1998; Rusten and Bryson, 2010; Säll, 2012). To analyse the gender consequences of a regionally constructed development strategy with a cluster orientation, we use the programme of a Swedish county (Värmlandic Sustainable Growth 2004–2007) as a good empirical example (Länsstyrelsen i Värmland län & Region Värmland [County Council], 2003).

State of the art

The Swedish county of Värmland is small and, in relation to the capital region, peripherally located at the border with Norway. The starting point for this county’s programme can be traced to the negotiations for EU membership during the 1990s, which gradually gave greater opportunity to regional governments to interpret their objectives and design of regional policy. Thus, in Sweden, there has been a transition from a state-driven, equality-based allocation policy based on an idea of equalization of unequal spatial conditions, to a regional growth policy that both allows and encourages spatial differences. There has also been a shift from a top-down, government-led policy to a bottom-up, governance-oriented policy (Montin and Hedlund, 2009). This has changed the democratic arena. Undeniably, a bottom-up policy would make it possible for more people to participate in decisions, but in regional policy this is not necessarily so. Although the Swedish parliament and government, for instance, managed to achieve gender balance and thereby improve the democratic composition at the national level, the boards appointed to implement regional development programmes were put together on grounds where the equality aspects were absent and as a consequence they did not achieve the same equality. In this model, representative democracy was eliminated. When the regional organizations proposed their candidates, they were eager to guarantee their top players a prominent position on the boards, and they seldom chose a woman for that position. There is a difference between a decision model based on elections by the people and one in which various organizations choose the decision-makers. In the former model, the general population can demand accountability and vote individuals out of office who do not fulfil their task. They cannot do this with the latter model. Aarsaether et al. regard this as an important democratic challenge, and state

‘Although governance networks have made their way into a range of local policy fields, their democratic legitimacy is questioned because they operate more autonomously than elected representatives and therefore cannot be held equally accountable. Governance networks are not created primarily to enhance democracy: they are set up because they are expected to be more efficient and innovative in the pursuit of some public purpose.’

(Italics in original quote) (2011: 307)

The consequence of this indirect model of democracy is the focus of our study.

Networks as an alternative to traditional democracy

New regional governance (i.e. network-based policy) means that partnerships, evaluation committees and decision groups will strive for a good representation of key stakeholders, organizations and networks in the region (Montin and Hedlund, 2009). Networks have become an even more important player in policy-making on the regional level (see Baldersheim et al., 2009; Engstrand and Sätre Åhlander, 2008; Lindberg, 2010). According to Aarsaether et al. networks can be more or less inclusive of their membership and transparent in their activities. Regardless of this, they argue that politicians lose control over their steering responsibilities in this network-led governance.¹ Various networks have gained prominent positions in the formal partnerships that constituted the organization model in most regional development programmes in Sweden (Hudson, 2005), and during the first years of Swedish EU membership, it appeared that the groups were clearly male-dominated. It seemed that not only were women unrepresented as main actors of their respective organizations, but their organizations were not represented as well (Mål 5b Västra Sverige. Slututvärdering, 2001). This is a well-known situation in other European countries, as has been shown in various studies (see Rees, 2004 and Abels and Mushaben, 2012 for a European Union overview).

Today, after extensive criticism, the sex ratios in most regional groups and partnerships are relatively equal, even in Värmland. However, gender is not just a question of numeric representation, it is also about relative power in the groups (Hudson and Rönnblom, 2007; Lindberg, 2010; Saarinen, 2006). It is about women’s mandate to participate and their supporting networks. This is one of the key issues in our analysis. A distinctive feature of regional development policy is that it is governed by networks (see Hedlund and Montin, 2009; Hudson, 2005; Jessop, 2004). These networks consist of actors and relationships. Aarsaether et al. (2011) conclude that networks are built on three important pillars. First, there is a need for stakeholder representation, which means that groups affected by the work of the network will be invited. The second pillar is citizen involvement, which means that representatives of the people who are affected indirectly by the network must be involved. Third, the formation of the network must be transparent. We would add a fourth aspect: namely, that to achieve democratic legitimacy, the gender composition of the network should be equal.

All the partners are considered to have equal strength in the network and hence the same power. In fact, we note that there is often a hierarchy within the networks, in that some actors may be more important than others, and some relationships are more frequent than others. These networks are inherently unstable, which means that (informal) shifts in power among actors can occur, shifts that are not always apparent to outsiders and often not even to all the actors in the network. This means that mobile power centres develop within the networks (Westholm et al., 1999), making it unclear how decisions are made. Informal groups can be developed easily, and they can change and move without any real transparency. Another characteristic of networks is that they can occur in many different guises and sometimes may be completely unknown to other networks and members.

The relevance of gender analysis

One important aspect of regional development plans is a gendered understanding of economic activities. A basic tenet of gender theory is that gender is made through social interactions. The ‘doing gender theory’ is thus an important starting point for our analysis (see also Acker 1981, 1990 and 1999 for further analyses of ‘doing gender’). Economic activities are not perceived in a gender-neutral way. On the contrary, each business has an implicit and inherited gender code, mainly related to the gender of its employees. It has been well established knowledge that industries with a predominantly female workforce tend to have lower status than industries with male workers (Forsberg, 1989; Gonäs, 1989). Together with this gender coding comes gender-based wages, support of various kinds, rhetoric, etc. Female-coded activities overall have a lower and flatter wage profile, less public support in times of crises, and they are described with a vocabulary that tends to diminish their contributions relative to corresponding male-coded activities.

However, there is more to gender theory than the division of men and women in the labour market. It is about the whole division of societal activities from a gendered perspective. One such demarcation line goes through the relationship between production and reproduction. Labour markets are gendered institutions operating at the intersection of the productive and reproductive economies (Elson, 1999).

Although the first and second waves of feminism analysed the social, political and economic conditions of their contemporaries without problematizing gender as such, the third phase questioned this point of departure. Gender was not perceived as something given, but as something constructed. This also shifted the focus from structures to practices related to beliefs about the meaning of being a woman and a man. Theories turned to the complex social, cultural and symbolic category of gender.

With this constructivist perspective came new research questions. If the practices that interact with gender constructions were not based on something outside themselves, why did they continue to be active? This was addressed by the fourth wave of feminist analysis, which recognized and problematized the materialized, embodied experience of human beings. The constructivist approach visualized the distance between sex and gender, but it also realized the need for renewed reflection on the material and empirical reality from which gender was constructed (Simonsen, 2005).

Geographical research with a gendered focus has targeted the relationship between production and reproduction (concepts that include raw material extraction and processing as well as human processing and treatment) Forsberg and Gunnerud Berg (2003). Production and reproduction were seen as inextricably bound, indistinguishable spheres, despite society’s tendency to separate these activities. Reproduction is both formal and informal; it is both paid and unpaid work. The fundamental goal of gender studies has been to problematize the distinction between production and reproduction (between public and private), as well as to analyse the spatial, political and economic implications of this division.

For humanity, the decisive interaction between men and women in reproduction is fundamental and inescapable. The genders depend on each other in reproduction, and in the context of the prevailing gender system, this refers to both proximity and demarcation. In addition to this obvious dependence, gender theory analysis shows the importance of gender as a distinct categorization scheme in society and in the world of ideas. Gender research unpacks the complex understanding of power relations associated with class, race, sexuality, age, physical conditions, etc., at the same time that it focuses on gender schemes as the axis around which power operates (McDowell, 1999).

This distinction between production and reproduction is maintained through so-called gender contracts that are manifested and practised on a day-to-day basis (Hirdman, 2003). The process of contract maintenance takes place at multiple levels. It occurs at the company level through the gender division of labour, at the regional development level through systems of innovation and decisions about financial support, and, finally, at the individual and household levels by way of unpaid family work. In this study, we focus on the way gender contracts work at the regional level, in regional development policy.

New concepts for regional development

The redirection of regional policy introduced new decisions and new language (Richardson and Jensen, 2000). Jensen and Richardson (2004: 240) argue that the spatial discourse of the EU expresses a power rationality of monotopia. The overall objective of the INTERREG Programme, for instance, is to integrate the spatial perspective of the EU into peripheral parts of Europe and to enhance the common European identity of people in these parts. Over the past decade, the concepts of clusters and innovation have had a major impact in the discussion of what creates economic growth and a so-called competitive business sector, both in research and in regional policy. Clusters, of course, are not just conceptual. They have a material base and traditionally these groupings of related companies and businesses were labelled agglomerations and identified in theories of regional economy (Krugman, 1994).

The theoretical influence comes from the so-called ‘New Economic Geography’, which was developed in ‘late 1990s’, and which emphasized that place matters in regional concentrations of certain economic activities. With this emphasis, New Economic Geography challenged neoclassical economic explanations of what creates economic competitiveness. The argument was that competitiveness could not be explained by low-cost production factors such as labour, capital and natural resources, but by the ability to utilise specialized skills, creativity and innovation. The structures of related actors were conceptualized as innovation systems, the national system of innovation (Freeman et al., 1995; Lundvall, 1992) and economic clusters (Porter, 1990, 2000).

Other approaches tried to explain uneven spatial development and the tendency for industries to cluster by focusing on relational social and cultural factors, in opposition to economists, who used sophisticated models and theories of centrifugal and centripetal forces (see Perrons, 2001, 2004). Maskell and Malmberg (2007) take an actor’s perspective to explain the position of the actor. This spatial concept explains why potential entrepreneurs in a local environment make choices that enhance specialization in the community, regardless of what started the process.

The arguments developed by the New Economic Geographers harmonized well with the EU’s bottom-up regional strategy, which stressed the importance of the regional level in national development, and thus regional development programmes were strongly influenced by the analysis, approaches and concepts of this theory.²

However, with a linguistic twist involving the use of clusters, the perspectives of the agents were nourished. Clusters can be constructed and developed, in contrast to agglomerations, which are structural observations. That is why the cluster concept was an appropriate part of the new regional development language. In this new regional discourse, clusters were more than economic theory and more than a management activity. They were politics.

Regional policy is no longer based on the idea that competitiveness is created by the low cost of natural resources and cheap labour. Economic growth depends upon a region’s ability to use its unique skills and creativity, and clusters and innovation have become two of the linguistic tools used in development programmes (see Carlsson, 2000; Christensen and Kempinsky, 2004; Edquist, 2000; Malmberg, 2002; Nilsson and Uhlin, 2002). Cluster initiatives refer to collaborations between companies and actors from universities and public organizations in the region. Another tool is the so-called ‘clustering engine’, which creates arenas for businesses and other stakeholders to meet and exchange knowledge. This new language had a clear impact in the Värmland Regional Growth Programme for the period 2004–2007 (Länsstyrelsen i Värmlands län & Region Värmland [County Council], 2003).

The use of clusters in this politically oriented, discursive way is clear in the Värmlandic Programme.

‘To meet the challenges of tomorrow and break down negative trends, we in Värmland, from a joint perspective of the contemporary situation and our orientation towards the future, need to consensually mobilize our efforts and inputs for a better Värmland’.

(p. 6)

‘By cluster, we mean the geographic concentration of firms that are dependent on each other and contribute to a greater competitiveness. In our region, we can identify some cluster-like concentrations of firms—The Paper Province, Compare (IT), Steel & Engineering Industry with a number of sub-clusters. This strategy is based upon the desire to strengthen these “clusters”’.

(p. 13) (Our translation and italics)

Line Säll (2012) confirmed the idea of regional planning as a way of doing politics via cluster orientation in her analysis of the discursive practices of the contemporary development strategy in Värmland.

Prosperous region as a main objective

Another feature of regional development policy is the desire to be bigger (see Perrons, 2004). Regional growth programmes express a general desire to grow, not only economically, but also in terms of population. Many regions aspire to become part of a network of large regions. Many Swedish regions are unlikely to be able to join the network of global city regions (Global Cities), but they aim to be part of a network of metropolitan regions (Westholm et al., 2008). Small and medium-sized cities want to build alliances in a European network of urban areas. This encourages a network hierarchy in which the primary objective is to become a node in as important a network as possible. Swedish regions are trying to become larger by creating attractive environments for their research and teaching universities through the development of Triple Helix configurations with public and private partners. Triple Helix configurations have become a central method for regional policy around the globe, and they have been used for neo-corporatist and neo-liberal agendas in policy-making (Marton, 2008). The original idea was to build an analytical tool for research on regional development, but it turned more and more into a tool for regional development. Sweden is one of the countries that has made ‘The Triple Helix’ its official regional strategy (Etzkowitz, 2008). This model was used in the Värmland Regional Growth Programme.

Research focus and methods

Sustainable Growth in Värmland was the name of the Regional Growth Programme (RGP) for the period 2004–2007. The regional actors involved in shaping the programme concluded that the main growing potential would come from three clusters: the Paper Province, the Steel & Engineering Industry, and Compare. The Paper Province consists of nearly 200 companies, mainly in the paper and pulp industry, and is organized as an economic association. The cluster employed more than 10,000 people and in the last 10 years invested more than 10 million Swedish Crowns (equal to one million Euro). The purpose is to promote skills development, marketing, project development and regional growth processes. Steel & Engineering is a non-profit organization that supports 50 steel and manufacturing companies in the region in co-operation with other regional players in business development, research and the provision of skilled workers (Made in Sweden – Cluster cooperation in Norden Central Sweden. Assessments 2010). The number of employed people is 11,000.

Compare is a foundation of approximately 100 companies in IT and telecommunications. As this is a group of smaller companies, they employ about 5,000 people. The number of companies has grown rapidly since 2000. The foundation was formed to encourage collaboration and make use of joint marketing initiatives to recruit trained workers and entrepreneurs to the region.

These clusters and other network arrangements, drawn together to emphasize and mobilize regional resources, ended up (on the whole without objection) as three clusters with no future prospects for women’s businesses and little relevance for women entrepreneurs. We wanted to know how this could happen despite the involvement of many women in leading positions and the fact that gender mainstreaming was emphasized as an important horizontal goal for the Sustainable Growth Programme.

Accordingly, our aim was to scrutinize retrospectively the process with gender-analytical tools. We wanted to know which actors were included in the process and who had the power to influence the final product. That is, who were the most important actors, how were they organized, who constructed their networks and which of them gained influence in the regional partnerships?

Our findings are the result of a study based on interviews with women actors who initially took part in the programme development process. They were leaders of private and public corporations and they held important positions in local government and political parties. We contacted our informants by telephone and met with them in their homes or workplaces, mostly the latter. All 20 women we contacted agreed to be interviewed. The interviews, which lasted from one to two hours each, were recorded and transcribed. The situational analysis approach we used was inspired by Adele Clarke’s development of Grounded Theory (Clarke, 2005). Our informants made interpretations of their own positions in the programme development situation, and they described other positions taken by the leading group of men. This made us aware of the presence of informal, concealed networks of men that largely excluded women. All of our informants talked about these concealed networks that men used to form a consensus before the official partnership meetings took place. The informants specifically mentioned Freemason Lodges and Rotary Clubs as examples of networks they suspected offered meeting places where programme issues might be decided. This led us to investigate networks and develop an historical retrospective. We also made observations and analysed key documents. We made observations in all the situations to which we had access, such as meetings and workshops arranged by the regional government, the County Council, the cluster organizations, and other arrangements to which actors in the partnership were invited. Through observations and analysis of key documents, we could confirm interview data about the EU-specific linguistic usage and the superstar rhetoric. During observations, we also noted the strong tendency to reproduce consensus and various actions to divert any form of dissent (Alvesson and Deetz, 2000).

We thus studied the process from historical, geographical and social perspectives. Of particular interest to us was the understanding of why gender equality was given such a modest role in the programme, despite the fact that the directives were clear: gender equality would be a horizontal objective and should (or was intended to) permeate the entire work. This was initially explicitly formulated in key documents:

‘Regardless of gender, we have equal opportunities. To achieve the goals of gender equality, a mainstreaming strategy should be used. This means that a gender perspective must be incorporated in all decision-making, at all levels and in all stages of the process, by the actors normally involved in the decision-making.’

(Länsstyrelsen i Värmlands län & Region Värmland [County Council], 2003: 9, our translation)

In our analysis, we found that this gender mainstreaming ambition encountered a power structure of male networks with a long historical tradition.

Contributions and implications

One active network identified by our informants was the Freemasons, which dates locally from 1811, when a Stuart Lodge was established in the county. In our historical review, we found that it was the upper layer of the ironworks and paper mill society that started this first lodge. Here we find nobility, clergy, industrialists, military officers and civilian officials. All were men and Christians, and this is still the recruitment principle in the Swedish Freemason Lodges.

Historical tracks

In the historical overview, we also found that the lodge leaders expanded their power base through the establishment of the Karlstad Savings Bank in 1822 (Ednarsson, 2010). The Freemasons established the bank and dominated its board of directors. They could benefit by their contacts and the loyalties of already established networks to ensure their success in new areas. As a rule, these networks require the appointment of members, and their influence on regional development policy seems to continue even today. We became acquainted with these current networks and their links to the partnerships for regional planning by counting heads. Among the 219 people representing the organizations involved in the partnerships, we found 45 names (20%) on the membership list of the Freemasons (12) and/or the Rotarians (37) in Värmland. This means that their association with these networks is 20 times more common than for the county citizens as a whole (1%). We also noted that most of these names were connected to leading positions in the regional government, the county council and the municipalities, as well as to leadership in private companies, trade and industry. A small number of in the programme development process were identified by most of our informants as being most important, and they were also clearly noted in our own observations. These men included the highest civil servant in the county council, the highest civil servant in the regional government and the managing director of the Wermland Chamber of Commerce. One man had the highest grade (XI) in the Freemasons, ‘Very Enlightened Brother’, and he was also a member of a high-status Rotary club. Another man mentioned had both Freemason and Rotary membership. Still another man was a Freemason and belonged to the same Rotary club as the second man.

Informal networks, male dominated

There are certain features that contemporary partnerships have in common with the historical networks, but of particular interest is the importance of a connection to traditionally male networks. The elite associated with various key activities in the community are linked together in more or less visible networks. There is also a striking consistency between the leaders of the partnerships and informal networks. At the heart of the networks, we find mostly male actors who have (or have close ties to those in) power-bearing positions. In these groups, the homosocial core has its power base and we can verify that the most important men in the development programme leadership were engaged with the Freemasons and the Rotarians. Here the reproduction and consolidation of power in regional development is manifested. They gather together in breakfast, lunch or dinner meetings, and they are invited to the same hunting, Freemason or Rotary clubs. In terms closely related to nepotism, one of our female informants (the managing director of a large transport company) talked about brothermoney when referring to company leaders favoured by loyal brothers in positions of authority.

‘Meeting places like these come and go. Some municipal officials and leaders can unite behind a strong person. They received much criticism for giving support to some companies. That is how “brothermoney” is distributed. However, many officials today are not at all like that’.

(Managing director, woman)

Partnership is based on the idea of non-hierarchical and inclusive networks of equal partners. In practice, partnerships as a policy tool are believed to be capable of breaking down previous power structures and path dependence. However, our study suggests that historical structures remain. This, in turn, means that new activities and potential economic clusters are difficult to develop. Thus, in the historical analysis, we obtained support for our hypothesis that durable social structures are infiltrating regional policy today. One striking aspect is the presence of Freemasons in regional policy, a persistent and homosocial male structure. Contrary to tradition, they now tend to act on the concealed side of public partnerships, perhaps because Sweden is seen as having gender equality. Our question about the power and influence of women is not unwarranted.

The positive analyses of the networks Putnam (1996) advocates seem somewhat weak in light of our analysis. The network tradition creates, with historical ‘necessity’, the image of a coherent story of Värmland with a bias towards the old industries. This is consistent with the analysis Aarsaether et al. (2011: 311) conduct of the way network governance tends to implicate a certain ‘logic of appropriateness’, which can take the form of storytelling. We ask ourselves what is missing from this narrative.

We argue that new industries and entrepreneurs have no access to the right channels and networks, and this is especially true of female-dominated industries and women entrepreneurs. One factor that plays a role in this context is that women entrepreneurs seldom have access to a male or a senior mentor as young men acknowledge they have through invitations to male networks such as the Freemasons, breakfast meetings and hunting clubs.

Our results are not unique to this region and they prompt some theoretical reflections. There is theoretical support for a homosocial bias in decision-making at various levels (Lindgren, 1999, 2004). At the same time, this phenomenon has its specific spatial flavour. The general structures and processes take shape in a local and regional manner.

Development of a monotopian space

In their study of European spatial politics, Jensen and Richardson (2004) discuss the tendency towards a ‘monotopia’ in Europe. According to Flyvbjerg et al. (2003), the concept of monotopia was created by the idea of a zero-friction society, with a non-restricted, harmonized flow of people, goods, information and capital.³ Borrás and Jacobsson (2004) have argued that the EU has changed the nature of power such that it is softer, not wielded by sticks and carrots, but by the ability to create consensus and narrow the conflict space. European regional policy (which has influenced Swedish national policy for regional development and growth) can thus be summarized as striving to construct a monotopian society that does not encourage diversity, but presents a single story. It is a one-dimensional society built with the help of a political discourse that seeks to reproduce itself through hegemony and a passive acceptance of the overall story of how regional development is created (Jensen and Richardson, 2004: 179). This was verified by our informants, as this situation can be recognized in Värmland: Is it possible that Värmland is building a monotopia?

The network model has increased the possibility that informal networks will influence formal decision-making systems. For key activities, people with a good knowledge of Värmland are required, and these people seem to be easiest to find through personal contacts in informal networks. People from officially organized networks that do not overlap with important informal networks have less chance of being chosen.

By analysing the interviews, we can conclude that there are some essential features of regional development. In particular, the prime innovation systems are based mainly on old structures that hardly govern global economic realities any more, but they still affect the social system and social networks. These structures are:

– family-based relationships,

– place-bound social capital, and

– regional gender contracts.

Family-based relationships

The informants testify to the importance of kinship for position and access. Belonging to a Värmland family is an important gateway to the informal networks. The power could be inherited, and family relations at the highest levels of society were frequent and often guaranteed by marriage and inheritance. This was especially apparent to those who were not born in Värmland.

‘It is more family here than in other counties. I have not lived in all counties, but I have worked and lived in some…. It is more family here. Here you are a relative if you are a cousin, second cousin or third cousin, and many people have lived here for a very long time. It is deeply rooted; it plays a huge role.…. Because family is important, and if I have a business and you are from the family it means that I can rely more on you in various contexts. Blood is thicker than water, and this blood reaches very far out. It is so very much relatives.’

(Woman company owner newlyestablished in Värmland)

Through the right relationships, even women may have the opportunity to reach important positions. Informants agree that Värmland is a small and possibly closed county, and that everyone ‘likes to know who everyone is’. We found that family relationships existed in the historical process that built the place-bound capital of Värmland, but the culture has a clear gender structure with clear markers for each gender. Economics and politics are not areas for women; their roles are more linked to health care, other types of care and altruistic work. This is a clear expression of the production/reproduction cleavage identified in gender theory.

Place-bound social capital

Place-bound social capital means that people are defined by their spatial position. By coming from a specific farm or a specific place, you have a certain social status. In contrast, if you come from outside the county your social capital can be challenged. It is not so useful (especially for women) to come from Uppsala (an old university town), for instance, and be intellectual, as one respondent put it.

‘We’re extremely proud to be from Värmland. If Värmland had its own flag, it would have been hoisted of course. And .…. I’m more from Värmland, the more relatives I have here. People do not say that they come from Karlstad, or Årjäng; they say they are from Värmland. Everyone understands what that is. It guarantees something. It is some sort of epithet.’

(Leader of public organization, woman)

Regional gender contracts

Closely associated with place-bound social capital is the form that gender contracts take in the Värmland municipalities (See Forsberg, 2001, 2004). Gender contracts can be described as the informal regulations that govern the everyday relations between men and women. Although there is a general gender pattern that can be distinguished regardless of geographic environment and historical era, there are local and regional variations in this pattern. These contracts are designed by the various economic systems as well as the local economy in a historical perspective. They survive because they are practised, though they are challenged in the context of economic and social transformations.

In Värmland, these gender contracts have some characteristics in common, even if they vary among municipalities on a couple of indicators. The common features have to do with traditional gender relations—in the labour market and in politics, as well as in the family. Historically (since the 17^th century), this county has been heavily dependent on industries that process the natural resources of the region. This physical and material fact has also shaped the ideological perception of the county. Industrial production has been understood as men’s work, whereas women’s work was in supportive reproductive tasks. Networks were built in the production sector and survived even when other, more service-oriented businesses entered the economy. All of these social structures have become increasingly important for the network model as a principle for regional development. Because the social and informal networks of significance are mostly homosocial, formally organized partnerships also become homosocial. Thus, even those from important Värmland families, with the attendant place-identity that implies, may not be invited to the network if they are women.

Monotopia becomes homotopia

Our informants regretted that there is so little public debate and civic interest in regional policy issues. The paradigm of consensus is strong and unchallenged. Conflicts in the economic system and the clusters never become public. Thus, regional public debates never reveal that there is a competition among development strategies, or even that the strategy of choice can be contested. Many of the informants wanted a more open debate, and one of the female politicians formulated it like this:

‘There is very seldom anyone who stands up and says no, we certainly do not think this is a good idea. It’s really a shame. I am a friend of constructive conflict. But everyone is so amazingly afraid. There must be consensus. But then there is nothing. If you have to agree on everything, you only reach a small piece. For the lowest common denominator is so small. People think that conflict means that you are almost quarrelling. But I think it is these situations that give birth to new ideas.’

(Local politician, woman)

So far, we can assume that there is a soft power link between the construction of a monotopia and the (male) homosocial informal networks. Thus, the monotopian strategy becomes homotopian. The Värmland regional process, therefore, is a homotopian regional programme.

This can be seen as an expression of the division between what is understood as the productive (and thus economically prosperous) businesses and the more costly reproductive sector of the economy.

The monotopian region created by the development of a monotopian rationality constructs the notion of a region free of conflicts. In a county the size of Värmland (population 280,000), there is a small group of people who act in the regional development context. Värmland (and for that matter, other counties in Sweden using the same approach) developed an EU style for guidelines, recommendations and language, which was taken from the ESDP (European Spatial Development Programme) operations. Using this language, regional actors banded together, whereas those unfamiliar with the codes of conduct and concepts such as additionality, subsidiarity, added value and priorities were kept outside. One could call this the language of monotopia, or homotopia, as it is also dominated by words belonging to a unilateral homosocial environment.

‘This makes it very difficult, and many women do not recognize themselves in this milieu. They really don’t. Not even in the language used. It’s so strange to talk that way’.

(Small company owner, woman)

The homotopian region is constructed by this language with specific production-related concepts and expressions that convey a particular way of looking at the region. The major actors have the power to define what constitutes clusters, innovation systems or networks. The networks also tend to be self-reflective. Those who are closely connected to a network may fail to see what is outside. Women have difficulty entering most male-dominated networks not because of their glass ceilings, but because of their mirror walls. Mirror walls prevent the networks from finding ‘suitable women’ with the right qualifications, even if they are trying, because they only see themselves.

‘I have heard people say with pride in their voices, “I have hired 10 people without having to use a single job advertisement”. If you don’t belong to a network, it is not easy to become integrated in the local economy’.

(Managing director, woman)

The eternal question of power

Värmland is our study area, and we believe that it does not differ from other regions in Sweden with respect to the concentration of power within certain groups of various compositions, depending upon the local business traditions and natural resources. However, we believe that our results differ in a crucial way from the results shown in a national study of the power elite. That study, The Power of Gender – men and women in the Swedish power elite in the 2000s, shows how the elite dominate culture, politics, media, businesses, organizations, science and management (Göransson, 2007). This is exciting reading for anyone interested in issues of power, and especially for those who want to learn more about women’s (non-existent) position in the power elite.

Nevertheless, these national empirical data have little correlation with our Värmland case in terms of membership of the elite. With the exception of individuals such as the County Governor and the Vice-chancellor of the University, very few people in Värmland belong to the national elite. The data indicate that the national elite structure seems to be increasingly closed. Elites are educated in a certain track and advance within the hierarchy, but mobility among elites tends to decrease; it seems as if one must be born or married into the elite to advance.

This description may be appropriate at the national and global levels, but at the regional level, it is misleading. What we found instead is that the informal, concealed networks can bring together policy-makers from various fields and thus overcome differences between power bases. To a lesser degree, this system overcomes gender barriers. This difference between the national and regional levels may be attributable to a difference in methods. Surveys of the national elite may not have been able to capture the concealed venues (we assume) they have as well. Therefore, the sealed tubes and lack of mobility among national elites may be only an illusion. Regardless of that, it is evident in our study that these contacts between networks are frequent and that there are overlaps between power bases at the regional level.

The national study also reports other results that contradict our data. The authors conclude that women in the national elite tend to acquire considerable social capital through networks, that network capital is a kind of social capital that the men have less of, and that this potentially compensates for the negative equity of being a woman in the elite(Göransson, 2007, p. 223). It is likely that their survey method was accountable for these results. Another plausible interpretation is that women are more likely to notice the people they need to contact to obtain information because they put more effort into finding them. Men tend to get information effortlessly, so to speak, in the environments to which they routinely have access (Lindgren, 2004). Previous research strongly supports our scepticism about these results, which does not mean that we do not realize that women are eager to build their own networks (see Holgersson, 2003; Kanter, 1988; Kvande and Rasmussen, 1994; Wahl et al., 1998).

The elected and the anointed

The situations in Värmland and the nation also have strong similarities, such as women’s access to power positions. There are women in politics and in positions that require clear representative and appointment procedures, but their numbers decrease dramatically when informal peer-selection methods are used, as in the private sector. Therefore, it is not surprising that Värmland has such homosocial regional planning even though there is an unusually large number of women in prominent positions in the public arena (Eduards, 1992). We should not be convinced that the number of women in public and policy positions necessarily reflects greater equality in society. The significance of politics declines as the economy gathers more and more space, and ‘women’s resistance’ to the private sector’s leadership will become an informal model for other areas, as the growth of neo-liberal discourse spreads (rather discreetly) to more and more spheres of influence (Rönnblom, 2009).

A new masculinity?

Connell and Wood (2005) note that global influences affect the gender order of hegemonic masculinity in a way that counteracts the gender equality discourse in Sweden and in Scandinavia generally. Transnational companies operating on the global market influence the situation in peripheral regions, perhaps to such an extent that peripheral regions become aware of changes long before metropolises.

As global ideas, venues, capital and networks become more important, we can predict (with Connell and Wood) the emergence of a new transnational business masculinity that may knock gender equality off the agenda. On the other hand, globalization is a very turbulent and unstable phenomenon in which many centres of power manifest themselves and where the outcome is by no means given. The countries of the European Union are democracies; certain laws and reforms, including gender equality, must be in place for their membership to be approved. However, there is a distinction between official systems and informal and real organizing, as we have tried to show. Much of the ‘unification’ that constitutes the globalization that influences the gender hierarchy will also sneak (be transformed) into a discursive packaging that starts new gender organizing long before the gender equality gatekeepers have time to react (Rönnblom, 2009).

We can identify a hegemonic masculinity in Värmland, and it probably has much in common with the old industrial society. However, it may have new features related to networking through the wires stretched to global nodes, both in terms of global markets and contacts with Brussels language, and in the homosocial networks, such as the Freemasons (which was a global institution from the beginning). A brother can be found as easily in Brussels as in Karlstad. What we found in Värmland is possibly an up-and-coming form of ‘trans-network masculinity’, involved in all relevant networks, irrespective of direct benefits. This is about a masculinity that seeks different types of supportive contacts in a turbulent and uncertain surrounding, rather than about identification with a particular group. This means that one is able to play around with the rituals without any ambition to have a Freemason or Rotarian career. It can even be somewhat embarrassing to be a member sometimes, but the meetings are valuable if the right people are represented and the time that it consumes is compensated by a better orientation in the power landscape.

By moving in and out of the major networks (checking status and people), members can become visible by showing respect for different categories of achievements. This can be described as a socially skilled representative of a new ‘doing gender’ practice. Through a sensibility for the lowest common denominator masculinity in various male groups, the hegemony can be secured. This practice leads to a safer orientation in a complex world where long wires and long-range networks are attached to strong nodes in the stable tradition of roots.

Women work in the same way as men, but they are excluded from male homosocial groupings. Women’s homosocial groupings may be a strategy, but they are not a solution. Women at the top have both men and women around them (intentionally or not). Men more often have only male colleagues (the industrial boards). Women are thus building more diverse collegial groups than men (Göransson, 2007). Perhaps women recruit staff with different experiences (men and women) and avoid ‘yes-men’. It is evident that the uncertainty and insecurity at the top tends to promote like-minded, single-sex contexts. Nevertheless, women leaders seem to believe that they can secure their position and do well with a diversity strategy (Kanter, 1988). Are they right?

The future of regional policy

In this study, we assessed innovation efforts in the Värmland regional development policy from a gender perspective. We note that equality and growth were seen as separate policies rather than reciprocally supportive efforts.

This is easily explained by gender theory. The economy has a gendered bias in which (male-dominated) productive businesses are understood as innovative, economic and vibrant, whereas the part of the economy that has historically been female dominated, such as reproductive and health care activities, tends to be seen as less profitable and more economically burdensome.

We do not deny that the industries examined here are true clusters. Without a doubt, they are important activities in the region. Our argument is that the regional programme would have been improved by integrating the female-dominated sector of the economy, both in terms of the policy’s sustainability and its gender integrating ambition.⁴

With a governance policy that integrates various networks into policy decisions, it seems that this gendered understanding of the economy has an opportunity to grow. Furthermore, with the less transparent situation that network governing tends to develop, it is more difficult to discover the implicit, gendered assumptions that are guiding policies and plans.

Based on the foregoing analysis, we ask how the region’s actors can make use of the potential for integrating growth and gender-equality policies.

During this project, we have made numerous contacts with key organizations and networks and we have communicated the nature of our work with many regional actors. Perhaps this interactive approach has contributed to increased attention to the need for gender mainstreaming in regional development, and thus the project may have influenced more recent planning in the region. The new Regional Development Document lends support to such a conclusion (Made in Sweden – Cluster cooperation in Norden Central Sweden. Assessments 2010). In this document, one women-dominated Wellness-and-Care sector was identified as a possible innovation system. The regional rhetoric used in the network-driven regional policy, however, is still not sensitive to the diversity of stories told in the region. The three male-dominated clusters for the steel, forest and computer industries are more of the same, reflecting the historical perspective in Värmland. Two of them have dominated the region since the golden days of ironworks and paper mills, and the third is the cluster for a new production technology that is profitable for the historical clusters and their future development. This is the result of homosocial understanding in networks of power and their successful reproduction over time. However, reality can best be understood as ambiguous and disparate.

Värmland, like other regions, has a choice to make. The lack of conflict is what Chantal Mouffe calls ‘pain-free politics’, led by a closed circle of elite white males who enjoy power and do not want to give it up (Mouffe, 2000: 112; Rönnblom, 2009). Either they continue to build on homotopian stories with the help of the concealed male networks, or they start writing new, heterotopian descriptions of their region, where there is room for dissent, weak links and network bridges. That could be a strategy that integrates well with a gender analysis of regional innovation, and sustainable development for the majority of citizens could be realized.

Footnotes

Notes

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