Investigating the sources and flows of LEADER-related information allows identifying key actors in the implementation process. It is looked at both initial information (when actors heard about the LEADER programme for the first time)103 and current information on the programme.
5.5.1 Informal information flows as a complement for the shortcomings of a weak agricultural administration
The analysis of the flows of initial information pointed to foreign actors as an important trigger for raising interest in LEADER: for instance, German students who had worked on a rural development project in Romania and the Hungarian LEADER Center (Figure 5.2).The high number of Hungarian actors is due to the fact that 85% of the population in Harghita County are ethnic Hungarians (NIS 2006). The importance of a common cultural background for establishing social networks also became evident in the Romania-wide survey since, for instance, other potential LAGs benefitted from their contacts with France (cp. also Chapter 9).
The LEADER-animator of LAG-BU and the regional manager of the microregion-association of LAG-MA have the highest out-degrees (each 7.9%, Table 5.7), indicating their importance as a source of initial information about LEADER. Foreign actors together have a high out-degree of 22.4%. They are thus significantly more important as a source of information than the programme agencies, namely the directorate (DARD) at the county level and the ministry (MARD) at the national level (0.0% and 6.6%, respectively). Nevertheless, MARD has a relatively large icon in Figure 5.2, indicating a comparatively high out-degree. This is due to the fact that MARD provided initial information about LEADER to subordinate agencies, DARD and two additional agencies (the Paying and Intervention Agency for Agriculture and the former SAPARD-Office) (Figure 5.2). However, almost none of the local actors had heard about LEADER through MARD or its means.
Noteworthy, awareness among the rural population of the abstract LEADER programme was triggered mostly through face-to-face communication. This can be seen as a sign of “strong ties” in terms of intensity compared to communication via media. Leaflets or the internet were less important. Indeed, one factor inhibiting the transfer of information about LEADER is the programme’s complexity: 68% of the LAG-BU actors and 54% of LAG-MA actors stated that they find the programme bureaucracy difficult to understand. Just over half of the surveyed DARDs (54%) stated that the LEADER guidelines were easy to comprehend.
According to Bădescu and Sum (2005), support for democracy, trust in the rule of law, and corruption do not vary regionally. However, they found differences in attitudes, specifically trust in other ethnicities, efficacy, and trust in NGOs are all higher among Transylvanians. Moreover, Transylvanians are more frequently active members in association life (ibid.; see also Pop 2002; UNDP 2007a). These findings suggest that it will be even more difficult for potential LAGs in other parts of Romania to mobilise the third sector. Following the 2008 Romania-wide survey, at that early stage of LAG capacity-building NGOs and foundations made up on average 18% of the partners within LAGs, other private actors and communes made up 37% each, and other actors accounted for 8%. Explicitly noted as underrepresented stakeholder groups, were, for instance, farmers and gypsies.
103 “To have heard of LEADER for the first time” was specified in the questionnaire and related to a respondent having consciously heard about the programme who would then theoretically be able to transfer the information received. This does not necessarily imply that the programme had been understood by the respondent or that sufficient knowledge on it was gained what would have required to interpret the information within a cognitive frame (Nooteboom 2003).
Figure 5.2: Social network: Flows of initial information about LEADER
The network of current information about LEADER (Figure 5.3a; Table 5.8) highlights again that MARD is a source of information for different agencies. Typical means of information used by the programme agencies (e.g. brochures) play a minor role. In the current information network, the LEADER-animator of LAG-BU has an outstanding out-degree, 19.4%. The County Council, although not officially responsible for LEADER affairs, also has a high out-degree of 10.5%. Another institution that appears in the information networks (Figure 5.2 and Figure 5.3a) is the Regional Development Board104 – albeit not in a central position. Public employees with no contact with the agricultural administration receive information about LEADER through this channel (Figure 5.3a). The relevance of the internet as a source of information is discussed in more detail below; with an out-degree of 27%, it ranked first. The Romania-wide surveys and the case studies show that rural people in Romania are poorly informed about LEADER and thus insufficiently aware of the advantageous possibilities of the programme. Interestingly, this applies even to actors already involved in LAG activities.
104 There is a Regional Development Board in each of the eight development regions, which comprise the 41 Romanian counties and the municipality of Bucharest. It is a deliberative body without legal status and is in-volved in the coordination, design, and monitoring of non-binding regional development planning in the relevant administrative unit.
Social Networks and Rural Development – LEADER in Romania 97 Table 5.7: Calculation of the out-degree-centrality of sources of initial information on LEADER
Consulted actors 52 actors of both potential LAGs and 9 organisations
Network size 77
Actor Out-degree (%)
Ranking LEADER-animator (LAG-BU) 7.90
Microregion-association (LAG-MA) 7.90
MARDc 6.58
German students 6.58
County Council 5.26
Internet, non-specifica 5.26
Sum of the out-degree of all foreign actorsb 22.39
Programme agencies MARDc 6.58
DARD 0.00
Distribution
Min 0.00
Max 7.90
Mean 0.99
Note: a This category is used when respondents could not name a specific webpage.
b The network includes nine foreign actors/organisations.
c Includes entries in media published by the MARD.
Table 5.8: Calculation of the out-degree-centrality of sources of current information on LEADER Consulted actors Actors of both potential LAGs and selected organisations
Real network Virtual network
Network size 68 69
Actor Out-degree
(%)
Actor
Out-degree (%)
Ranking Internet, non-specificb 26.87 MARD-Homepage 54.41
LEADER-animator (LAG-BU) 19.40 Internet, non-specificb 26.47
County Council 10.45 LEADER-animator (LAG-BU) 19.12
Other media 8.96 County Council 10.29
Selected actors MARDa 5.97 MARDa 7.35
DARD 0.00 DARD 0.00
Regional manager (LAG-MA) 4.48 Distribution
Min 0.00 0.00
Max 26.87 54.41
Mean 1.54 2.30
Note: a Includes entries of media published by MARD.
b This category is used when respondents could not name a specific webpage.
For instance, in both information networks one finds isolators, who stated that they had not received any information about LEADER. They often became active in regional development activities independent of LEADER or were persuaded to join a LAG, such as the businessmen in LAG-MA. Yet, despite the obvious deficits, a fair judgement on the weakness of the Romanian agricultural administration in promoting LEADER is difficult because there is only rare information on this issue in other NMSs. Maurel (2008) reports for Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic that, besides the internet, transmitter organisations such as local authorities or civil society organisations are relevant for spreading initial information about
the programme. The ex-post evaluation of LEADER+ explicitly pointed to two international rural development organisations as promoters of LEADER in the NMS (Metis et al. 2010).
5.5.2 Keeping and gaining power by steering flows of information
Comparing the general communication network (Figure 5.1; Table 5.4) with the LEADER information networks, actors with many contacts in the region and knowledge about LEADER, but who nonetheless do not actively promote the programme, can be identified.
This is particularly true of mayors. Most mayors of both LAGs are very well embedded in the communication network having a high in- and out-degree, but they have a low or no out-degree in the information networks. This suggests that they want to avoid too broad participation while still pulling the strings. Furthermore, considering its low centrality in the information networks (Figure 5.2; Figure 5.3a; Table 5.7), it is remarkable that DARD is regularly contacted by nearly as many local actors as the County Council. The in-degree of DARD is 66.0% and that of the County Council 74.5%, while the respective percentages are 42.0% and 56.9% for the relations valued according to the contact frequency (Table 5.5).
Thus, the County Council is in a key position as an information transmitter.
Those who transfer information can – intentionally or unintentionally – transform information, in a positive sense by adding important explanations, or in a negative sense, for example, by concealing certain issues. Therefore, the betweenness (definition in Table 5.2) of an actor is an indicator of power. The more agents depend on one individual agent in the network to make connections with other actors, the more power this particular agent has (Hannemann 2001). The values of the betweenness in the network on current information about LEADER (Table 5.9) show that the County Council indeed has a crucial position with a value of 0.18%. It disseminates information to a number of actors who rarely use other sources of information. Its key position also becomes apparent in Figure 5.2: flows of information run from two ministries at the national level through the County Council to other actors, particularly to mayors. In Harghita, the pivotal position of the County Council led to both positive and negative impacts. On the one hand, it could motivate mayors to become active in LEADER at all. On the other hand, it influenced the decisions on which communes merged to LEADER regions, which inhibits the realisation of the bottom-up approach. - The County Council can still exert influence, particularly on mayors since they depend on it in many regards (cp. Section 3.5.1.2).
5.5.3 The potential of the MARD-Homepage as tool for spreading information and balancing power
The MARD-Homepage theoretically offers a convenient link to relevant information.
Nevertheless it is currently not used sufficiently by LEADER actors (Table 5.8), although more than half the actors are aware of the MARD-Homepage and a large share of them (85%) has access to the internet. Two reasons appear to prevent local actors from using the MARD-Homepage: (1) many do not search actively for information; (2) local actors consider the MARD-Homepage unattractive and uninformative. Indeed, despite modifications of the programme schedule, the section on LEADER was not modified at all over the course of a whole year (from October 2008 to October 2009).
The potential of the MARD-Homepage is analysed by looking at a virtual network (Figure 5.3b): All actors who know the homepage are considered active users of the current information about LEADER available there. When comparing Figure 3a and Figure 3b, the effects are obvious. In the virtual network (Figure 5.3b) the homepage has the highest out-degree (Table 5.8). Consequently, the relative betweenness of the County Council and therefore its position of influence shrink drastically (Table 5.9).
Social Networks and Rural Development – LEADER in Romania 99 Figure 5.3: Transfer of current information about LEADER
Figure 3a: Social network of flows of current information about LEADER
Figure 3b: Virtual network: The potential of the MARD-Homepage as source for current information about LEADER
Table 5.9: The betweenness-centrality of sources of current information about LEADER
Real network Virtual network
including the MARD-Homepage Consulted actors 52 actors of both potential LAGs and 9 organisations
Network size 68 69
Actor Betweenness
(%)
Actor Betweenness
(%)
Ranking LEADER-animator
(LAG-BU) 0.77 LEADER-animator
(LAG-BU) 1.19
County Council 0.18 MARD-Homepage 0.98
Employee of commune
BU-2 (LAG-BU) 0.09 County Council 0.18
Employee of commune BU-2
(LAG-BU) 0.13
Programme agencies
MARDa 0.00 MARDa 0.00
DARD 0.00 DARD 0.00
Selected actors Regional manager
(LAG-MA) 0.02 Regional manager
(LAG-MA) 0.07
Distribution
Min 0.00 0.00
Max 0.77 1.19
Mean 0.02 0.04
Note: a Includes entries of media published by MARD.
The LEADER-animator and one active employee of a commune (BU-2) in LAG-BU keep their high betweenness in the virtual network, even though they do not have the highest out-degree and cannot reach as many people directly as the MARD-Homepage. These two persons cross-link different sources of information and the members of the LAG-BU. Hence, although a homepage can potentially serve a high number of actors and can thus effectuate balancing power in an information network, personal involvement on the part of individual actors is needed for cross-linking and for integrating actors without access to the internet, as well as for ensuring that the idea behind LEADER is well understood.