CAHIERS DU CRISES
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COLLECTION ÉTUDES THÉORIQUES
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NO
ET0908
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The original objectives of the project, located in Barcelona´s Metropolitan Region, are
economic growth, employment, social cohesion and territorial sustainability. The actors
involved have been city majors, trade unions, entrepreneurs, organizations of civil society,
regional, and national governments as well as European institutions, a form of multi-level
governance (García et al. 2004). Civil society has the opportunity to innovate both in terms of
governance, social economy and job creation. But this governance system has also constrained
the local creativity in many different aspects apart from the employment dimension.
The employment pacts have widened the scope of employment policies, creating a framework
based on local and regional development. In that sense the pacts want to create consensus
around the economic model as well as social cohesion. The main interest of the research in
terms of governance is on the transformation of the decision-making employment structures
from a centralized model with regulated norms to decentralized and ad hoc policies based on a
regional strategy. In that sense, we must investigate the relevance of the local level in policy-
making in comparison with the still remaining key role of the central state in employment
policies. The importance of the local level can explain why and how different actors interact.
In the multi-scalar perspective, it seems that local agency can implement active policies
formulated at other scales but it is difficult to reformulate it at that level. In that sense, the
employment pacts are being promoted following a more general development strategy based
on the “knowledge society” discourse and competition between cities and metropolitan
regions in attracting capitals and qualified employment. This general strategy affects not only
employment policies at the local level but also the whole urban management. The Pacte del
Vallès was based on the coordinated action of all the municipalities of the county of Vallès
Occidental. In that sense the regional perspective allowed the creation of a great diversity of
programs that link job creation with other issues such as environment. Nevertheless this
regional level created a more institutional perspective, what constrained opportunities of
participation of civil society. The two main cities of the county, Sabadell and Terrassa, created
local pacts for employment with broader engagement of civil society through participation of
NPOs and social movements in the creation of a city pact. In fact, the local employment pacts
were treated as a part of a more general city pact formed by more than 20 local agreements
such as Agenda 21 or the scholar council. This generated a greater scope for participation for
the civil society that must not face the old social dialogue structure at local level.
A second element to take into consideration is the openness of the process in terms of
participation. Traditionally, employment policies have been managed by the State,
entrepreneurs and trade unions through social dialogue. These social actors have been
GOVERNANCE AND DEMOCRACY
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KATARIS PROJECT
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legitimated through representative democracy, and represented the antagonist worlds of labour
and capital that arrived at arrangements with the collaboration of the State.
The new perspectives on employment policies which appeared in the nineties, being adopted
by the EU with the European Employment Strategy, open the policy process to new actors,
namely the third sector and civil society. The logic of this openness is linked to the idea of
territorialization of employment policies in a general framework of urban governance. In that
sense, the new management framework is aimed at establishing consensus between a wide
array of actors from market, state and civil society. However, we must consider the fact, as
some of the classic social actors argue
6
, that opening the process of participation is not
necessarily leading to a more democratic form of governance if there is no democratic
legitimisation of the actors. For that reason it is important to analyse also the relationship
between actors participating in the process and society. In the case of the Pacte del Vallès,
entrepreneurs and trade unions have had a central role, with critical views on major
participation of third sector organizations. Trade Unions have experienced some difficulties
participating in the process due to their internal organization based to a great extent on the old
model of centralised social dialogue. On the other hand, entrepreneurs have their own local
structures due to the peculiarities of the industrial tenure in the county
7
(Hermosilla 2003).
The need of coordination between trade unions and entrepreneurs with city councils and
regional authorities has created a new institutional framework where employment is
understood as a general objective that is only possible to achieve with the development of the
whole county (Carmona 2006). In that sense the Pact created institutional mechanisms to
launch general economic promotion policies aimed at improving employment levels. Although
there is a lack of visible results in terms of employment creation, the pact has created
opportunities for getting public funds to launch socially innovative strategies against
unemployment. One example is the creation of programs aimed at the recuperation of the
Ripoll River. The program included the improvement of the environment surrounding the
river, and the creation of routes and information for users and tourists. The program was based
in part on civil society implication and was aimed Civil society associations looking for an
environmental action in the river, whereas the pact saw it as an opportunity to create a
framework where new tertiary industries could emerge. This example brings us to another
conclusion: the pact emerges as a new institutional actor that can look for the collaboration of
6
One of the main arguments of Spanish trade unions to constrain participation of third sector and civil society actors is their lack of
legitimacy through representative democratic processes.
7
In fact, the industrial structure of Vallès Occidental, with small familiar enterprises as its main feature, has determined the existence of
two main entrepreneurs associations linked to the cities of Sabadell (CIESC) and Terrassa (CECOT).