The author, drawing on the theoretical conceptual developments and changes in the field of border area research during the last decades, identifies and describes three analytical trends ("shifts"): the processual shift, the multiplicity shift and the complexity shift. These are not separate from each other, but refer to specific orientations in border research. Starting from the observation that in the wake of the so-called border turn there was an increase in awareness of borders, and against the background of the practice turn, which no longer sees culture as being characterised by representations, but by practices, through the three shifts new possibilities arise for examining borders, which focus more sharply on the processual and performative elements of the border.
The UniGR-Center for Border Studies Border Textures working group was set up in 2015 to pursue and further develop the cultural orientation of Border Studies in the Greater Region. This research orientation focuses on the symbolic-social dimension of borders, which it addresses from both high and popular cultural angles and everyday cultural angles. To do this the working group has developed the Border Textures approach, which, as a methodology and heuristic, addresses the practises and discourses around borders with their actors, media, materialisations, effects, places and the complex interactions between them. The approach forms an instrument for analysis and refection that helps to understand the social and cultural workings and mechanisms of border (de)stabilisation.
There is significant renewed interest for borders. Empirical observation has shown that border stabilisations and destabilisations are multifaceted and are therefore increasingly perceived as complex processes. With this publication project, the 20 authors critically and productively address the concept of “border textures” in order to produce an analysis and reflection instrument likely to strengthen the complex research on borders from all angles.
