SWOT-analysis as a basis for regional strategies - EUROlocal

• overall developments, dealt with in the single general assessment, provide a
common ground for all stakeholders to process their points of view.
On the other hand a system of partitioned analysis with closely targeted focal areas
can be very efficient in practice. To function optimally it, however, presupposes that
the linkages between the partial analyses are maintained. Positions of interlinked key
parameters affecting all the partial analyses should be established prior to any
subsequent steps in the analyses are being taken. If those in charge of one or another
of the partial analyses want to change these positions, this must be:
• duly agreed upon with those in charge of the other analyses, and
• updated to keep the entire system consistent.
It is obvious that a system with several partial analyses requires a great deal of
communication and adjusting. Thus it can be argued that the use of partial analyses
serves best as a recommendable solution in programming processes which are already
– by the nature of the subject of the programming – focused and built on a firmly
shared a priori vision with strong principal positions subsumed from it. Such a state
of mind has been frequently called strategic consciousness, preceding the actual
process of making the strategy in a programme format.
Another requirement – which actually is the other side of the previous argument – is
that all stakeholders involved in the process should be able to feel that they can truly
commit themselves and their respective organisations to the key parameters and the
duly derived positions. Here the strategic consciousness referred to above is of key
importance, creating an affirmative atmosphere helping the various stakeholders to
close ranks in the face of a shared task.
The third requirement, partly derivable from the previous arguments, favours the use
of partial analyses in programming processes with only a handful of key actors with
vested interests involved in designing of all the paralleling partial analyses. This
argument holds true for the actor set-up of basically all co-operation processes.
The paradox of the entire line of argumentation lies in its basic reasoning about best
use of several partial analyses instead of a single generic one. Based on the arguments
above it indeed appears as if such a method should be institutionally most feasible in
highly focused processes and very limited actor set-ups. But if the scope of the
programming process is relatively one-dimensional and if only a limited group of
actors is involved, why break the analysis to its smaller elements and why have the
strategy makers dissipate their energies into the writing of several paralleling
analyses? At first sight such characteristics should point at a setting favouring the
handling of the entire package of analyses as one single entity, which would mean
that the logical outcome of the reasoning would lead to favouring one generic SWOT
analysis instead of several thematic ones.
Furthermore, a regional program SWOT is to take into account the territorial structure
of the target area. In general SWOT should concentrate on issues that are common to
the whole region, but in large and diversified regions it may be necessary to look also
at sub-regional characteristics.
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