La metodología del coaching

The exploitation of gains from cooperation which result from an all-encompassing tourist development, the provision of local public infrastructure facilities or the cleaning of natural resources requires the implementation of institutional arrange- ments that coordinate individuals’ interaction with respect to local activities, in- vestments in infrastructure and tourist offers, and initiatives to discover the natural capabilities of the region. By the end of the 1990s, collective investments in Bałtów had hardly emerged due to interaction problems among inhabitants. Interviewees mentioned that inhabitants did not cooperate with others since they were suspicious and could not anticipate other inhabitants’ behavior. Cooperative initiatives between local businesses were more or less absent. Only small groups of close friends or neighbors organized small initiatives. But those small groups also did not coordi- nate their initiatives, as the following quote illustrates: "[A]ssociations […] did not cooperate with each other. There was a big disintegration. It has not often happened that different associations cooperate with each other. They often had the same aims but they did not realize them together. Often it is more a kind of competition, but they could have worked much better," (B-14). The lack of cooperation pertained not only to local associations, it particularly concerned local businesses. A local inhabitant who attempted to undertake the first steps towards starting a cooperation between a few local businesses mentioned: "Six years ago, I worked together with some local businesses and they did not exactly want to say what they do. They did not want to explain what kind of plans they have, because they were afraid of others to use their ideas," (B-09). In the following, I will present important fac- tors which hampered local inhabitants from starting common initiatives to provide basic conditions (e.g. infrastructure, clean natural resources, or tourist facilities) as incentives for local businesses to invest in tourism:

1) Lack of trust among inhabitants. Interviewees have recognized a stronger sepa- ration between local inhabitants and a decrease of common initiatives since the transformation process started in the early 1990s. The interviewees mostly asserted a lack of trust between inhabitants as the main reason for the absence

of cooperative actions and common initiatives in the commune. The main rea- son for the lack of trust was seen in the increasing income disparities between inhabitants. "[U]nemployment, on the one hand, and a higher standard of living, on the other, have a strong impact on trust between people," (B-18) a respondent

stated. A local farmer explained the lack of trust similarly: "That is our mentality after communism. Right now, we have big differences in the standard of living between people. One is poor and the other one is rich," (B-11). These income

disparities often led to a decrease of social contacts between the inhabitants of Bałtów, as an interviewee assessed: "It used to be better. People were nicer to each other and much more kindly. There was more communication. They helped each other, and they saw each other more often. Now, life is more anonymous. People are not very interested in their neighbor’s house and just care for their own problems," (B-28).

2) Passivity of the former local government. Until 2002, an important impediment

that hampered the local economic development in Bałtów was the local govern- ment. Actually, the local government should have acted as a facilitator of coope- ration between inhabitants. However, in Bałtów it was the opposite. An inter- viewee said: "The second problem was the old local government. They were not interested in the development of the region […] or in EU programs. They already heard that these programs are working successfully, but they did not want to apply for them. And people in this region could not influence the decisions of this old local government," (B-26). Local inhabitants reported that the old local

government did not undertake any actions to invest in the local infrastructure. Besides this passivity, the previous local government also interrupted initiatives undertaken by local associations to develop the region. A local entrepreneur who took considerable part in the latter initiatives, commented: "[T]here were only difficulties. People from the previous local government were all communists and in particular the mayor. The mayor did not see the possibilities and un- dermined the different initiatives that attempted to develop the region. People who were against the mayor had to emigrate and lots of people emigrated finally. The ones who were not allowed to show what they feel and think, and who were not able to change what they wanted to change, they emigrated. We had the high danger of unemployment in front of our eyes and the local government did not react on it," (B-33). Another inhabitant assessed: "We wanted to change

the situation in the commune and the previous local government did not coope- rate with the people in this region," (B-26). A further respondent claimed: "About

eight years ago, I was a member of the local council, and I tried to encourage the members of the old local government. I told them to use these beautiful natural resources and they answered that it is a stupid idea to use them," (B-19).

Finally, there was no cooperation between local inhabitants and the local govern- ment. However, due to the lack of candidates the local government remained the same from the socialism era until 2002.

3) Lack of local leaders. Furthermore, interviewees also assessed that there was

a lack of local leaders who could organize activities, collect ideas, and even coordinate the realization of common initiatives: "Those persons [local leaders] are important. They should collect all the ideas and should present these ideas to the local government and to all the other people in the region," (B-12). Besides

the needed organizational skills, the presence of local leaders in common ini- tiatives is also important to increase inhabitants' trust in activities: "People who organize the festivals or picnics usually do everything on their own. Small exhibitions are mostly organized by local inhabitants. They are willing to do something. And other people may join them, when they see something is hap- pening. However, if they saw that the local leaders work with them, they would also contribute," an interviewee assessed (B-14).

4) Lack of seed capital. The last important reason that often hampered inhabitants

from undertaking common investments in public facilities is the lack of access to financial sources. When the steel company in Ostrowiec was shut down, peasants mostly lost their employment and gained only a small income from farming. Therefore, they mostly do not possess seed capital to start-up busi- nesses and small shops, or to save money to undertake larger investments, e.g. in regional marketing or infrastructure. Hence, not only did the free-riding option hinder members of groups which planned to invest in common facilities, but the limited access to financial sources itself also hampered local inhabitants from undertaking collective investments. Moreover, inhabitants were afraid of taking commercial credits or credits to be used for non-agricultural investments. Un- successful investments undertaken in the early 1990s still discourage inhabitants in their decisions of whether to undertake investments. An interviewee said: "The transformation of the political system is the main reason. In the transfor- mation process lots of people started a business and they lost everything. That is the main reason why people are afraid of starting a business," (B-33). Be-

sides, due to a lack of guarantees peasants rarely have access to commercial investment credits.