Theories – Concepts – Terms

Abstract: Since the 2000s at the latest, border studies have been an aspirational field of research in social sciences and cultural studies in Europe as well. The field is characterized by an expansion of the disciplines involved, as well as by a lively theoretical-conceptual discussion combined with the dynamics of the practiced research paradigms. By means of this thematic focus, the UniGR-CBS is participating in the international debate on analytical tools, methodologies and concepts of border research. To do this, conceptual blind spots are identified, own theorizations tested and new analytical developments are proposed on the basis of the research results achieved and current theory developments that are received.

Since the 2000s at the latest, border studies have been an interdisciplinary field of work in social sciences and cultural studies in Europe as well. The field of research is not just characterized by an increase in the disciplines involved, a change in the practiced paradigms, but also by a progressive institutionalization and internal differentiation at the same time. Such dynamics are attributable both to epistemological turns (e.g. cultural turn, spatial turn, practice turn, material turn) and scientific-political prioritizations (e.g. migration, diversity, cohesion), which are associated with the most recent social challenges in Europe (e.g. growth, security, integration, populism).

Against this background, border studies now comprise a wide range of research topics in border contexts, ranging from employment, education via spatial development and politics to language or culture. In the process, the view has asserted itself on a theoretical-conceptual level that the functionality and mechanism of borders is not evident at the fences at the edge of national territories and, instead, borders become comprehensible via the examination of processes or their installation, shifting, infiltration, etc. This view of borders – as processes of their production or destabilization – has been widespread in border studies since the 2000s at the latest with the bordering approach.

However, the application thereof beyond disciplinary boundaries in the last decade shows that this analytical perspective has not been sufficiently developed in many cases, in order to really understand the urgent social challenges in Europe and beyond. The criticism of the bordering approach is geared towards insufficient conceptualization and undercomplexity and has led to an expansion of the analytical perspective in recent times: It attempts to focus on various dimensions of bordering processes as well as their interaction with each other.

The UniGR-Center for Border Studies aims to productively participate in this further development of border studies, which has been running for almost a decade now. To this end, an attempt is being made to capture the complexity and relationalism of border (region) phenomena, in order to conceptualize borders as results and points of reference of multi-layered configuration, resulting from the (situate) interaction of different players, activities, bodies, objects, as well as knowledge.