Orientaciones para las Comisiones de Evaluación y Evaluadores

In order to gain insights into the formation of rural governance, the 96 LAGs operating in Hungary in the 2007-2013 financial period, more specifically the local LEADER management constituted the research population. The main aim was to conduct semi- structured key-informant interviews with staff leaders or staff members (LAG programme managers) depending on availability of potential interviewees. The rationale for using a key-informant technique was to obtain information from expert sources who are able to, as a result of their position within the society, provide more information and a deeper insight into the phenomenon under investigation (Marshall, 1996). To this end, the five criteria of key-respondent eligibility suggested by Tremblay (1989) have been applied to verify the eligibility of the selected population.

The LEADER local management can be characterised as comprising highly educated people, typically holding a degree in agricultural engineering, management, economics or other related areas. Under their responsibility there are a wide variety of activities including, but not limited to, the preparation of the local development strategy, project generation and appraisal, technical assistance, development of international relationships, and information provision for the local communities. Typically, they are highly committed members of the local community and intermediaries between the public and civil spheres with wide-ranging network relationships. On the one hand, they take part in, and exert influence on, strategic decisions on the directions of micro-regional development through the administration of public funds. On the other hand, they are essentially ‘civic entrepreneurs’ or bottom-up developers who primarily represent the civil society (Saxena & Ilbery, 2008). In line with Saxena & Ilbery’s (2008) characterisation, they can be further described as ‘boundary crossers’, who work beyond traditional governmental structures and collaborate across political jurisdictions; ‘integrators’ whose principal role is to foster more connected regional approaches, and lastly, ‘coalition builders’, ‘who build support from local leaders, businesses, interest groups, and policy professionals towards a shared vision’ (p. 236). Their formal role and knowledge therefore exposes them to the kind of information being sought by the researcher (Marshall, 1996).

The impartiality of the respondents is an aspect which is the most difficult to assess, hence some sources suggest a more flexible criteria that is adaptable to any given research (Howard, 1986; cited in: Marshall, 1996). Evidently, the staff members of the LAGs

represent local views, which matches the objective of this research to explore the micro- political perspective of rural governance from the civil side of the local management.

As far as the accessibility of respondents is concerned, it has been previously mentioned that all contacts of the LAG offices were available to the public though the Internet. The complete list could be obtained from the website of the ‘New Hungary’ Rural Development Programme,5 and more detailed information was available on the individual websites of the LAGs.

Considering that the research population was clearly identifiable, key-informants were selected randomly from each of the seven NUTS2 regions of Hungary. The LAG offices were contacted through e-mail in which an appointment for telephone interview was requested, after the research had been briefly introduced, the purpose of the interview explained and the affiliations of the researcher provided to the recipient LAG managers. Snowball sampling was also used because after completing an interview, respondents were asked to suggest staff members from other LAGs, who, in their opinion, were particularly informative and would be willing to participate in the research.

The sampling strategy rested on three criteria. One, in order to provide a broader, quasi- longitudinal perspective on the turn of two programming periods, interviews were undertaken in two series. First, between May-September 2008 when 15 interviews, and second, between February-May 2009, when 23 interviews were conducted (Table 5.3), resulting in an overall number of 38 interviews.

Two, the aim was to provide an even representation of LAGs of at least, or, around 30% of the overall number of LAGs in every region. Although this threshold could be reached in five regions, it could not be passed in the South Great Plain region (Dél-alföldi régió) and in the Central Transdanubia region (Közép-dunántúli régió) due to insufficient or invalid contact information and unresponsiveness or unwillingness of respondents. However, the ratio of LAGs interviewed in these regions is close to 30% and the total average achieved is 34.4%. Lastly, the third consideration to be taken into account was to collect data until data saturation, i.e. information was repetitive and no new insights were being gained (Guest, et al., 2006; Morse, 1995).

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Table 5.3: Key-informant interviews conducted with LEADER LAG staff members

Overall number of interviews NUTS2 Regions Overall number of LAGs/region ₁st period 2nd period All % share of overall number of LAGs interviewed/region

Southern Great Plain region

(Dél-alföldi regió) 14 2 2 4 28.6

Northern Great Plain region

(Èszak-alföldi regió) 17 3 4 (1*) 7 35.3

Northern Hungary (Èszak-

magyarországi régió) 15 2 3 5 33.3 Central Hungary (Közép-magyarországi régió) 8 1 4 (1*,1**) 5 37.5 South Transdanubia (Dél- dunántúli régió) 15 4 3 7 46.6 Central Transdanubia (Közép-dunántúli régió) 14 - 4 4 28.6 Western Transdanubia

(Nyugat- dunántúli régió) 13 3 3 (2*) 6 30.7

All:7 96 15 23 38 34.4

1st period: May-September 2008 2nd period: February-May 2009

* Interview repeated with the same person already interviewed in the 1st period. These repeated interviews are not included in the % share of the overall number of LAGs interviewed/region.

** Interview undertaken with a person from a LAG in which someone else was already interviewed. These repeated interviews are not included in the % share of the overall number of LAGs interviewed/region.