Institutional Changes and Trajectories of Socio-economic Development Models (ICaTSEM)

ICaTSEM is a collaborative research project granted by the European Commission (7th Framework Programme).

The aim of the project is to analyse, within a comparative institutionalist analytical framework, the trajectories of socio-economic development models. Comparative analyses of forms of capitalism have underlined the diversity in institutional configurations. Within the EU, it is assumed that four types of socio-economic models exist: market-oriented, continental, Nordic, and Southern, with the position of transitional CEEC under discussion.

The project will reconstitute the historical trajectories of these socio-economic models, in order to understand how their institutional configuration mediates the synergies and tradeoffs between the economic, social and environmental dimensions of development. By focusing on complementarities and conflicts as well as changes in socio-political compromises, by contesting the hypothesis of convergence towards a specific European model and by analysing the impacts of globalisation and structural reforms, the possible future for these models will be discussed.

The research of the INTO group centers on the relationship between internationalisation tendencies on the one hand and the behavior and institutional development of national or local actors on the other.

The following questions guide the research: (a) transfer and translation effects between levels (vertical) as well as world regions and countries (horizontal), and (b) effects related to the resorting of economic activities and organisational types between societies.