In the light of the Schengen Agreement border checks at the EU internal borders have largely been abolished. Thirty years after the signature of this agreement, Europe faces “refugee crisis” (EC 2016). After recent events such as the terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels, some countries decided to re-establish border controls. What are the impacts of the reintroduction of these border controls from a spatial perspective? To answer this question, the authors propose a synthetic literature review on conceptual tools for analyzing the reintroduction of border controls and link these with a set of empirical findings. The focus is on the Greater Region, a cross-border region where functional flows are important.
The first part (part I) is devoted to conceptual aspects of border studies. Geopolitics are elaborated in part II. In part III, border enforcement in the 21st century is studied. Part IV is dedicated to the mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion implied by border tracing. The following section (part V) is devoted to the role of borders in everyday lives. The borderless world hypothesis is questioned. The next two parts entitled Crossing Borders (VI) and Creating Neighbourhoods (VII), are dedicated to borderlands and cross-border processes. In the final part (VIII) the interactions with nature and environment at the border are treated.
In order to analyze the importance of national borders for spatial identities in border regions, a multidimensional analysis model will be developed. Using the example of the SaarLorLux Greater Region, both the representation of space and the organization of the everyday practices of the residents of the region as well as the spatial projections in political discourses are examined. It becomes clear that, despite cross-border interdependencies, national borders play an important role in the residents’ processes of identification with and identification by/of. However, they are not regarded as rigid categories.
The edited collection offers a practical-theoretical perspective. It is assumed that “spaces and identities emerge from social practices” (p. 9). A reconstruction of media, institutional and everyday cultural practices in border regions is carried out on the basis of various research projects. Luxembourg and the neighboring regions in Belgium, Germany and France form the empirical research context for the individual contributions. Analytically, a distinction is made between three intertwined “border practices” “(1) the establishment of borders as differentiation or self-/foreign regulation to the outside; (2) the crossing of borders as an affirmative and/or subversive act with transformation potential; and (3) the expansion of borders as an ‘in between’ of manifold relations and intersections” (p. 10).
In recent years, the number of people from Luxembourg relocating to the German border area has increased considerably. Based on four different studies dealing with this development, the article shows that cross-border practices have contributed to a relativization of national borders, but that these continue to exist through new demarcations, such as spatial differentiations and social demarcations.
This paper deals with the possibility of elaborating a theory of the bordering that encompasses the different types of border and boundary experience. David NEWMAN refers to his previous works, where he argued that the creation of a common vocabulary between the different disciplines interested in changing border/boundary phenomenon is necessary in order to create a common set of theoretical constructs and frameworks. After an input on borders as institutions and the bordering process, a research agenda for the study of borders is discussed.
The Nijmegen Center for Border Research (NCBR) is a research institute based at Radboud University in Nijmegen (NL). Ongoing research deals with boundaries, identities and cross-border cooperation and interaction.
The aim of the MOT is to facilitate the implementation of cross-border projects. The positioning of the MOT as a network, which is supported at a national level and brings together the involved parties of the border regions, ensures the possibility of a structured dialogue between the authorities (at a national and European level) as well as between local and regional parties.
This special edition focuses on national borders. It deals with the development of border regions and highlights various forms of mobility. It deals with four topics of border studies: daily cross-border mobility, directing commuter flow, cross-border housing migration and the consequences of demarcations.
This chapter questions the marginality of border areas. The marginal nature of border areas is often highlighted in public politics, but rarely directly presented in all its ambiguity. Although these spaces may contain places of marginalization (prostitution, concentration of various types traffic, accumulation of refugees confined to the border), these situations are far from a generalization. Thus, it isn't enough to define them this way. The ambiguous relationship between borders and margins is addressed symbolically by the various cases (in France and in Europe). To test the character of the margin phenomena, a multi-level approach is proposed.
