Monitoring of Competitive Cooperation of Territories with Consideration of the Trust Factor

Abstract:

Competitive cooperation can bring regions and municipalities significant economic advantages, which makes monitoring of such cooperation more important than ever. The results of monitoring are used to develop measures to intensify the socio-economic factors that would facilitate and stimulate cooperation, help territories develop joint measures to overcome the consequences of natural disasters, minimize the risks in the time of local and global crises and so on. Moreover, monitoring provides updated information for assessment of vulnerabilities of inter-territorial cooperation and for getting a better understanding of the prospects of such cooperation. The purpose of the study is to describe the process of monitoring of competitive cooperation of territories and provide guidelines for its improvement. A particular emphasis is made on the factors that facilitate or, on the contrary, hinder efficient cooperation of territories as well as the indicators used to assess vulnerabilities. The research methodology is based on such general methods as synthesis, analysis, comparison, systemic-structural approach, expert polls, etc. The article describes the state of competitive cooperation of Russian territories (municipalities and regions) and provides a map of vulnerabilities of inter-territorial cooperation. It also contains a critical analysis of the existing methods for assessing the level of mutual trust. The results of this study can be used for further research on the evolution of competitive cooperation of territories; for the development and implementation of projects of interregional and intermunicipal cooperation.

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