In other words, the province was expected to provide a plan, vision, or framework within which initiatives could be embedded. However, such a perspective was quite contradictory and ambivalent to the view that the province should not meddle with entrepreneurs’ innovative activities.
The ambivalence concerning the required relation with the province led to alternately investing energy in involving provincial representatives in the New Markets process and pushing them out again. The New Markets project managers never whole-heartedly aimed to engage the provincial government out of constant fear of a take-over by the provincial government. This unstable strategy resulted in unconvincing attempts to involve provincial officers and executives in conversations and meetings. There was no real attempt to understand the frames of reference of relevant provincial government actors, and this decreased the chance of presenting the New Markets story in a way that connected to those policy frames.
In sum, although there were many doubts about the trustworthiness of the province as a partner in the coalition, the general view was that provincial support was indispensable because of the province’s decision-making power in the region. Getting attention was an enormous challenge because of the province’s highly self-referential way of working. The experience of the experts was that novel ideas and methods from outside, that did not fit into accepted frameworks, were overlooked. In terms of agenda setting, it could be expected that the province, performing its dominant role in the region, would only prioritize initiatives that would fit into the province’s ideas, visions, and plans.
Earlier we concluded that overcoming such a barrier would at least require a clear and attractive story that represented clear ambitions. On the basis of this section, we can add that a clear ambition and strategy to connect to the different layers of the provincial government was also required, especially since the highly self-referential behaviour of the province was difficult to penetrate.
As these conditions were not met, the New Markets initiative for a business community to protect and develop landscape qualities did not find much response. The initiatives for Healthy Living and Regional Branding, however, did manage to connect effectively with the provincial government. This is the topic of the next section.
4.4 Alignment of stories, people, and events
During the New Markets process, two initiatives that developed more or less autonomously and outside the grasp of the New Markets organization proved to be the most successful in setting political agendas: Healthy Living in South Limburg and Regional Branding. Both initiatives were taken by entrepreneurs to create favourable business conditions for themselves. While doing so, they served the objectives of the provincial government. We discuss two factors
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which explain their success: the ability to connect to formal and informal networks, to signal events that could trigger attention from targeted supporters, and to incorporate these events into their storytelling.
Connecting informal and formal networks
A paradoxical situation emerged regarding the attempts of the project team to construct a stable coalition around New Markets. While discussions in formal meetings focused on how to build such a coalition, participating entrepreneurs met in different informal settings and in different groups to discuss substantive matters that really interested them. This resulted in the Zwarte Ruiter Overleg initiative for regional branding. Although the project team never had a complete picture of the negotiations that took place behind the scenes in these smaller informal groups, these informal discussions were decisive for later decisions about the New Markets process, according to the project manager from Alterra:
With regard to the process I am not happy with all these individual discussions.
There is no context, no sense of cohesion. Here in South-Limburg, one-to-one relations are considered more important than collective discussion. You belong here, or you do not. If you do not belong, you are excluded unless you have a formal position. You will get an assignment if you speak Limburgish. It is very much an in-crowd. Everything happens in backrooms, like the Zwarte Ruiter Overleg. 4-23
The important role of informal decision contexts is confirmed by statements from respondents with a government background. The following quotation reflects how stakeholders engage in informal networking to deal with continuously changing coalitions and networks and related political ambitions and preferences.
It is not possible to organize cooperation in a rational way. I think this is especially the case in Limburg. Here you depend a lot on political and administrative relations: ‘who knows who’. The political ambitions of some determine whether others will be accepted or removed from a particular position. That always happens at eight o’clock in the evening. All the telephones in the province are ringing then. That is when business is done in Limburg. It’s all rather intangible.
(A provincial government officer) 4-24
The emphasis on informal communication can possibly be related to the previously described cultural preference for relying on influential individuals instead of policy programmes and faceless committees. Informal one-to-one discussion between individuals was considered more decisive than negotiation in formal settings. In the view of respondents, stakeholders preferred to work in smaller coalitions. In such a situation, it was difficult to coordinate a multi-stakeholder negotiation and to collectively construct a storyline or issue that could count on the backing and commitment of so many parties.
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The initial success of the Healthy Living initiative can partly be explained by considering the opportunities to share the story in informal and formal contexts and networks. The prioritization of Healthy Living had little to do with efforts in the New Markets process and more with the initiator’s membership of the existing policy network around the economic development of the region. This is illustrated by the events around the November meeting (November 9, 2006) of New Markets when a central role was attributed to the initiator of Healthy Living. It came as a surprise to the Alterra project manager that the November meeting was primarily devoted to the Healthy Living initiative and that the initiator of Healthy Living was suddenly appointed as project manager for the second phase of New Markets by the executive councillor for economic affairs.
This ‘coup’ by the executive councillor was seen as something that occurred outside the reality of the New Markets process.
The executive councillor for economic affairs did not know about the involvement of TransForum in the New Markets process. His interest was that the project would be in good shape at the end of his term. That is why he approached the Orbis director. (Alterra project manager) 4-25
The project managers furthermore stated that the executive councillor for economic affairs was not interested in attending the New Markets meetings.
This suggests that he was more interested in concrete business outcomes than in the efforts of the New Markets process to create a broader network organization with representation from several provincial departments, interest groups, and entrepreneurs. Moreover, the executive councillor was apparently convinced that the leader of the Healthy Living initiative, a healthcare concern director, had the leadership qualities required for the New Markets process.
The healthcare concern had previously contributed to the Health, Care, & Cure theme of the provincial Acceleration Agenda and had already participated in the coalition of entrepreneurs and government authorities assembled to establish the Acceleration Agenda. The activities and ideas of the healthcare concern director therefore already had the attention of the executive councillor before the ideas for Healthy Living were proposed. In other words, the success of the Healthy Living initiative can at least in part be explained by the earlier (informal) engagements of the healthcare concern director in activities of the province’s economic affairs department. The healthcare concern director was already considered an important and relevant partner in the network.
The importance of connecting informal and formal networks is also illustrated by the development of the Regional Branding initiative. The initiating group, Zwarte Ruiter Overleg, arose from informal contacts between entrepreneurs who met in the New Markets process and were interested in collective marketing needs. As previously described, the New Markets process did not result in clear issue framing and was limited mainly to a discussion about building a network organization. Although the organizers intended to discuss matters that would attract the entrepreneurs, the result of their efforts was in
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fact a drop in commitment from those entrepreneurs, who then pulled out of the formal process and found a way to self-organize in an informal setting. One of the Zwarte Ruiter Overleg entrepreneurs explained how he brought together other entrepreneurs from the New Markets process in informal meetings.
Zwarte Ruiter Overleg are people from the roundtable meetings in the New Markets process. I regularly met them there, and it turned out that we shared many of the same views about the lack of action and cooperation. The difference was that they were born and raised here and know the ins and outs of this area.
So I brought these people together to find out if there could be an initiative for business interests. We considered who should be involved and who not.…We were invited by the former director of the Gulpener brewery to hold the first meeting in his pub ‘De Zwarte Ruiter’ [The Black Rider]. At the end we needed a name: Zwarte Ruiter Overleg [Black Rider Consultation Group]. 4-26
The group consisted of successful entrepreneurs, including some who were active in governmental contexts. Together, they spanned a network of about 50 successful entrepreneurs. Their connections with the network of government officials and the way their ideas connected with the current economic policy agenda can explain why in 2007 the province decided to help develop the Regional Branding initiative. As already mentioned, three pathfinders were assigned to coordinate the development of a business plan and find support among entrepreneurs and municipal councils. One of them was a member of Zwarte Ruiter Overleg who had earlier proved his ability to combine business interests with meeting the objectives of the provincial government. Another was a former successful businessman and politician, and the third was a government official with firm roots in the political and policy context. Their efforts led to the establishment of the Regional Branding Foundation. This shows that, right from the start, the informal group of entrepreneurs had firm roots in the informal network of government and business executives and were able to build on those ties in pursuit of the Regional Branding initiative.
In sum, the Healthy Living in South Limburg and Regional Branding initiatives were self-organized initiatives of entrepreneurs who operated in informal and formal policy networks which were highly connected. These networks provided the opportunity to share stories and discuss alternatives both informally and formally.
Adapting stories to meaningful events
Agenda-setting research emphasizes the importance of political or social trigger events or focusing events which provide an opportunity to focus the attention of policymakers on a specific issue (windows of opportunity). This suggests that agenda setting depends partly on coincidence. However, on the basis of the Heuvelland case, we argue that whether or not events perform as triggers depends on the meaning given to them by issue proponents and their