Grenzforschung

This paper engages with the established use of the concept of bordering in Border Studies and argues that it is often characterised by an insufficient explicit articulation of the underlying processual understandings of borders. Against this background, the paper proposes a heuristic that distinguishes between two ideal-typical approaches to bordering processes: an outward-oriented bordering inspection, which examines the effects of presupposed borders, and an inward-oriented bordering introspection, which reconstructs the border itself as the fabric of social and cultural processes of dis/ordering. This distinction seeks to more precisely situate different epistemic interests, objects of inquiry and methodological approaches within Border Studies and to relate them to one another. Drawing on examples, the paper demonstrates how both perspectives can be combined productively. It conceptualises the plurality of bordering not as a deficit but as an epistemic opportunity, the use of which, however, requires an explicit articulation of the underlying processual understandings of borders.

The concept of “placemaking” is well established in architectural, urban, and regional planning discourse. It refers to processes through which localities become identity-forming – through spatial design, social practices, or symbolic loading. This working paper offers a first theoretical reflection on the transferability and further development of placemaking in cross-border contexts. It focuses on an initial theoretical approach to cross-border placemaking as an analytical lens for describing site-specific transformation processes along national borders. The Pre-IBA Saar-Moselle (2022-2023) is introduced as a research situation: a curated and experimental planning initiative that served to explore the feasibility of establishing an International Building Exhibition (IBA) in the Greater Region, and more specifically in the Saar-Moselle border area. Through temporary stagings of border localities, narrative framings, and architectural formats, a laboratory space was created in which new forms of placemaking at national borders could be tested. Based on this, the paper develops initial analytical elements for a theoretically grounded exploration of cross-border placemaking. In conclusion, it shows how future research based on case studies in the Saar-Moselle region could contribute to conceptual clarification and interdisciplinary development.