Governing across sub-national borders in rural peripheries: network fragmentation and policy coordination challenges

Sub-national administrative borders can create hidden governance fragmentation in functionally integrated rural regions, yet their role in regional development remains underexplored. Using social network analysis and expert interviews, this paper examines governance structures in the German ‘Region der Mitte’, a rural cross-Länder region spanning three federal states. The findings show that everyday cooperation remains strongly clustered along Länder boundaries, while actors express greater willingness for cross-border collaboration in future-oriented ties. This divergence highlights how sub-national policy frameworks constrain governance beyond formal functional interdependencies. The paper derives policy recommendations for improving coordination mechanisms in federal and highly decentralised regional governance systems.