German

Despite the increased discourse on the complexity of borders, there are hardly any references in the academic debate as to what exactly complex borders mean or complexity-oriented border research. This paper starts here and discusses the promising relationship between complexity thinking and border research. To this end, it explains what is currently qualified as complex in border research and what understanding of complexity can be found there. The core ideas of complexity thinking are then presented and linked to the ordering and ordered principle of the border. Building on this, border research approaches and methodologies are identified that can be considered enablers of the complexity perspective and, thus, as starting points for complexity-oriented border research.

While the materialities and functionalities of borders have changed drastically in recent decades, the ordering principle of the border persists. At the same time, the selective character of borders is emerging with a clarity that has hardly been seen in Europe before. This is the point of departure for the issue papers, which discuss the observation that borders do not have the same significance for all people. For this purpose, the authors work with the concept of multivalence, which assumes that borders have social valences or relevances that differ regarding certain groups of people. The thematic issue with case studies of governance, flight, reporting, film, and literature shows multiple valences of borders, which stand for inequalities and refer to powerful cultural orders.

In border areas, there is a special need for cross-border coordination between the stakeholders of spatial development and spatial planning with regard to spatially relevant challenges and future oriented development processes. The process of creating and implementing cross-border spatial development concepts requires intensive communication and cooperation across borders. However, these can make an important contribution to a coordinated cross-border spatial development and thus bundle resources as well as efficiently direct them to coordinated measures and projects. In addition to this added value of cross-border cooperation, however, there are also numerous points of friction and obstacles, which are caused, among other things, by different planning traditions and cultures, administrative systems and responsibilities, or also concern a lack of knowledge about planning instruments in the cross-border context. In cross-border spatial planning and development practice, these obstacles and the existing spatial challenges can also be countered by sub-spatial or subject-specific cooperation institutionalized and organized at different spatial levels. In this thematic issue, strategies and concepts from cross-border spatial development are presented and highlighted, which deal with different topics of spatial development, reflect a spectrum of cross-border forms of cooperation and organization and discuss the added value.

The year 2020 challenged and put into question seeming certainties. The nation states responded to the spread of the coronavirus with varying restrictions of freedom(s), as well as temporary reintroduction of border controls or closures. 35 years after the signing of the Schengen Agreement, the issue of internal border controls within the EU resurfaced – with varying effects on border regions. Buildung upon a constructivistic perspective and based on a qualitative content analysis of newspaper articles of the Saarbrücker Zeitung in spring 2020, the Working Paper traces central discussion processes with a spatial focus on the cross-border area of the Greater Region. Our findings show that reports on securing border crossings outweigh those about reopening borders, underlining the effect of border closings as a sudden rupture with major effects on the lives of border residents, especially cross-border commuters. The actors demand a significant expansion and intensification of cross-border communication and cooperation in response to these experiences.

Over the course of the 20th and 21st century, different forms of cross-border cooperation have emerged and developed within the so-called Greater Region. The France Strategy of the Saarland – announced in 2014 – adds upon these existing efforts, aiming in particular to foster functional multilingualism, and cross-border cooperation in the economic, research, and cultural sphere. In this endeavour, both public and private actors are to be included into the process(es) of implementation. The announcement of the Strategy was met with notable response from the French neighbouring territories. In this context, municipalities serve a double role – on the one hand, they act as a ‚mouthpiece‘ for local interests and needs ‚on the ground‘, on the other hand, they themselves engage in and support cross-border cooperation, and serve as intermediaries for regional guidelines. Based upon quantitative and qualitative research with a focus on the local level, the following policy paper presents central recommendations for action regarding the further direction and implementation of the France Strategy, and more generally cross-border cooperation within the cross-border region of the Saarland and the French département Moselle. The recommendations are divided into five areas, touching upon activities related to the fostering of multilingualism, the support and accompaniment of activities, the fostering of netweks, as well as the further institutionalization of cross-border cooperation within the (trinational) border region.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the reflection on the role of training in the cross-border labor market. It does so by mobilizing the debates initiated in the different Cahiers de la Grande Région and during a conference debate organized online on December 1 2020 on the topic of "Inequities, Skills, and Training: What Equations for the Cross-Border Labor Market?” More precisely, this contribution aims at answering the following question: how can training and its different practices in the professional fields, but also in school and university education, mitigate the imbalances that are emerging on the labor market of the Greater Region? The document thus proposes a few lines of thought for cross-border cooperation in the field of training.