The chapter presents the state of the art of debates on theoretical and practical issues concerni... more The chapter presents the state of the art of debates on theoretical and practical issues concerning border politics and cross-border cooperation in Europe, that are relevant to the interaction between the EU border regions and their immediate neighbours. The chapter consists of two parts; the first focuses on the concept of ‘bordering’ as a theoretical and empirical approach to understanding the socio-political significance of borders both within and beyond Europe. Rather than to focus strictly on physical borders as legal institutions, the ‘bordering’ perspective is about the everyday construction of borders among communities and groups, through ideology, discourses, political institutions, attitudes and agency. The second part characterises the EU’s geopolitics as a dual project of consolidation and co-operation. This ‘politics of borders’, it is argued, have been an integral part of the European Union’s project of integration, enlargement and regional cooperation and has been embodied by the European Neighbourhood Policy. Examples of bordering processes will be elaborated based on discursive, practical, perceptual and representational framings of cross-border co-operation as border-transcending and border-confirming projects of regional development, with a specific focus on border governance models and on the role of civil society
Recognising the close interrelationships between social change and paradigm shifts, this book con... more Recognising the close interrelationships between social change and paradigm shifts, this book contributes to an interpretation of conceptual change in the study of borders. In so doing, the book responds to the challenge for generating different ways of conceptualising borders, thereby offering a chance to cope with the ‘real danger of a growing disjuncture between the increasing complexity and differentiation of borders in global politics on the one hand, and yet the apparent simplicity and lack of imagination with which borders and bordering practices continue to be treated on the other’ (Vaughan-Williams, 2012, p. 7). Taking up James Sidaway’s point (2011, pp. 973–4) that, ‘now is the time for a deeper contribution of a focus on borders/bordering within wider social and political theory’, contributions in this volume draw attention to a multiplicity of bordering processes and practices as a relevant lens to illustrate changing configurations of the social and the political. While borders continue to have considerable relevance today, there are ways in which we need to revisit them in light of constantly changing historical, political and social contexts, grasping their shifting and undetermined nature in space and time. This involves a double gaze, simultaneously directed to the changing role of political borders in the globalised world and to a theorisation of the varying relations between borders and society (Rumford, 2006). The second focus is particularly addressed towards a better understanding of the contemporary shapes, configurations and re-configurations of the social and the political in an age of globalization.
Civil society observations of the EU’s geopolitical impacts on its
immediate neighbourhood provid... more Civil society observations of the EU’s geopolitical impacts on its immediate neighbourhood provide a nuanced ‘ground-up’ perspective that eschews historically deterministic interpretations of the EU’s role in the world. While this article is limited to Eastern Europe, it nevertheless highlights some of the challenges facing the EU’s visions of ‘Neighbourhood’ as multilateral and multilayered regional co-operation. After a brief theoretical introduction, the article first characterizes the EU’s geopolitics as a dual project of consolidation and ideational projection; that is as two projects of re-ordering – re-territorializing – interstate relationships. It then addresses three specific and interrelated questions with regard to civil society: 1) how do the EU and its policies affect civil society co-operation agendas and practises, 2) to what extent does civil society participate in the co-development of Neighbourhood Policy and 3) how do civil society actors perceive the role of the EU in promoting cross-border and regional co-operation within the ‘Neighbourhood’? One central issue in developing these questions is that of establishing ‘common’ European values as a condition for successful co-operation. Civil society actors must simultaneously operate within different, often competing, socio-political contexts. A balance between situational ethics and more generally accepted notions of (European) values is thus essential.
Paying particular attention to legal and organizational aspects, this
article attempts to analyze... more Paying particular attention to legal and organizational aspects, this article attempts to analyze transboundary institution-building within the context of European integration and changes in European regional policy. Based on a short case study of the Dutch-German EUREGIO, it is argued that new EC regional development programs and national government support have helped this border area association define strategies enabling it to circumvent legal technicalities, establishing defacto (although not dejure) public agencies responsible for coordinating transboundary cooperation efforts. Additionally, the EUREGIO and other Dutch-German border area associations have vigorously pursued transboundary economic development schemes that have tended to cement working relationships and elicit central government support. Europe's progress in transboundary cooperation must be viewed in the context of developments taking place there, especially the growth of a unitary market and political and economic union. Nevertheless, it is suggested that North American border regions may be able to learn from European experience —particularly in the light of the North American Trade Agreement— developing strategies that mobilize local political sentiment and help overcome the influence of ideologies of national sovereignty at regional, state and national levels
This paper will present evidence of regionalization processes taking shape in “Finnish–Russian” K... more This paper will present evidence of regionalization processes taking shape in “Finnish–Russian” Karelia based on the construction of “familiarity”. This region-building strategy harks back to the well-known Euroregion model developed within the context of European integration. However, if Euroregions can be seen as largely public sector projects of “place-making” the construction of familiarity is a much more socially grounded process. The major shift under consideration is that of transcending the national appropriations of Karelia that have characterized Finnish, Russian and Soviet policies in the past. The focus will be on two aspects: (1) notions of a common regional space in order to promote cross-border co-operation and (2) the re-framing of history and the influence of tourism in developed multifaceted (partly post-national) regional ideas of Karelia. Rather than understand Karelia within the framework of nationalizing historiographies, these contemporary interpretations depict Karelia as a borderland—as a space of cultural and historical ambiguity marked but not dominated by alternating phases of Russification, Finnishization and Sovietization.
The European Union is presently constructing a new model of regional cooperation that includes no... more The European Union is presently constructing a new model of regional cooperation that includes not only economic objectives but also social, cultural and environmental agendas. One of the main challenges this project faces is the development of closer ties to neighbouring states without offering outright membership to the EU. As a result, however, cooperation and security-oriented agendas of the EU will automatically compete with each other for influence. The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) can be thus understood in terms of an ongoing project of re-territorialisation that combines traditional geopolitical concerns and a 'politics of regional difference' with a post-national focus on mutual interdependence and partnership. Evidence for the consequences of these competing territorialities will be presented from the results of European research on civil society networks between the EU and neighbouring states. The focus will be on EU-Ukrainian relations within the ENP context. " Interdependence – political and economic – with the Union's neighbourhood is already a reality. The emergence of the euro as a significant international currency has created new opportunities for intensified economic relations. Closer geographical proximity means the enlarged EU and the new neighbourhood will have an equal stake in furthering efforts to promote trans-national flows of trade and investment as well as even more important shared interests in working together to tackle transboundary threats – from terrorism to airborne pollution. The neighbouring countries are the EU's essential partners: to increase our mutual production, economic growth and external trade, to create an enlarged area of political stability and functioning rule of law, and to foster the mutual exchange of human capital, ideas, knowledge and culture " (EU Commission 2003:3).
'New' regionalism privileges social communication over political 'coercion' as a means to motivat... more 'New' regionalism privileges social communication over political 'coercion' as a means to motivate intermunicipal, interagency and multiactor cooperation in metropolitan regions. Critics claim, however, that the NR is little more than urban crisis management within increasingly unstable post-Fordist and neo-liberal environments. This analysis of emerging 'smart growth' strategies in North America offers a 'pragmatic', context-sensitive and critical reading of region-building in 'advanced capitalist transformation'. Issues at stake involve integral approaches to regional competitiveness, social equity, housing, redevelopment, transport, the environment, public services, etc. As will be demonstrated, however, this more global set of goals is translated locally into action, resulting in highly variegated regional governance landscapes that reflect both specific socio-political and economic contexts and the historical continuity of urban governance reform processes.
Based on a case study of Budapest, the authors discuss how regeneration strategies are being nego... more Based on a case study of Budapest, the authors discuss how regeneration strategies are being negotiated within post-socialist transformation contexts. Post-socialist transformation is in many ways a pronounced case of globalization and accommodation to market-driven logics of urban development. The example of regeneration strategies in Budapest highlights many of the contradictions involved in realizing socially sustainable and integrated regeneration strategies in post-socialist countries. Weak levels of state intervention, institutional fragmentation and powerful market incentives to promote speculative redevelopment tend to hinder the emergence of an affective social dimension. At the same time, the case studies presented here also provide evidence for incremental processes of learning that reflect local socio-spatial realities as well as “grander” designs of urban regeneration. This essay thus addresses processes of experimentation that are taking place in Budapest within a tense political space characterized by market-driven redevelopment, administrative fragmentation, autocratic governing styles and new multiactor approaches—partly funded by the European Union—to socially inclusive regeneration.
The European Union is presently constructing a new model of regional cooperation that includes no... more The European Union is presently constructing a new model of regional cooperation that includes not only economic objectives but also social, cultural and environmental agendas. One of the main challenges this project faces is the development of closer ties to neighbouring states without offering outright membership to the EU. As a result, however, cooperation and security-oriented agendas of the EU will automatically compete with each other for influence. The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) can be thus understood in terms of an ongoing project of re-territorialisation that combines traditional geopolitical concerns and a 'politics of regional difference' with a post-national focus on mutual interdependence and partnership. Evidence for the consequences of these competing territorialities will be presented from the results of European research on civil society networks between the EU and neighbouring states. The focus will be on EU-Ukrainian relations within the ENP context. " Interdependence – political and economic – with the Union's neighbourhood is already a reality. The emergence of the euro as a significant international currency has created new opportunities for intensified economic relations. Closer geographical proximity means the enlarged EU and the new neighbourhood will have an equal stake in furthering efforts to promote trans-national flows of trade and investment as well as even more important shared interests in working together to tackle transboundary threats – from terrorism to airborne pollution. The neighbouring countries are the EU's essential partners: to increase our mutual production, economic growth and external trade, to create an enlarged area of political stability and functioning rule of law, and to foster the mutual exchange of human capital, ideas, knowledge and culture " (EU Commission 2003:3).
The growing interdisciplinarity of border studies has moved discussion away from an exclusive con... more The growing interdisciplinarity of border studies has moved discussion away from an exclusive concern with geographical, physical and tangible borders. Instead, contemporary research appears to privilege cultural, social, economic, religious and other borders that, while often invisible, have major impacts on the way in which human society is (re)ordered and compartmentalized. Similarly, the traditional dividing lines between the domestic and the international and between what it is “inside” and “outside” specific socio-spatial realms have been blurred. This has given way to understandings of borders embedded in new spatialities that challenge dichotomies typical to the territorial world of nation-states. Contemporary borders are mobile: they can be created, shifted, and deconstructed by a range of actors. With this essay the authors engage a central question that characterises contemporary debate, namely: how are formal (e.g. state) and informal (social) processes of border-making related to each other? Borders are constantly reproduced as a part of shifting space-society relationships and the bordering processes they entail. Two aspects of these will be dealt with here: 1) the evolving process of reconfiguring state borders in terms of territorial control, security and sovereignty and 2) the nexus between everyday life-worlds, power relations and constructions of social borders. Both of these processes reflect change and continuity in thinking about borders and they also raise a number of ethical questions that will be briefly discussed as well.
The chapter presents the state of the art of debates on theoretical and practical issues concerni... more The chapter presents the state of the art of debates on theoretical and practical issues concerning border politics and cross-border cooperation in Europe, that are relevant to the interaction between the EU border regions and their immediate neighbours. The chapter consists of two parts; the first focuses on the concept of ‘bordering’ as a theoretical and empirical approach to understanding the socio-political significance of borders both within and beyond Europe. Rather than to focus strictly on physical borders as legal institutions, the ‘bordering’ perspective is about the everyday construction of borders among communities and groups, through ideology, discourses, political institutions, attitudes and agency. The second part characterises the EU’s geopolitics as a dual project of consolidation and co-operation. This ‘politics of borders’, it is argued, have been an integral part of the European Union’s project of integration, enlargement and regional cooperation and has been embodied by the European Neighbourhood Policy. Examples of bordering processes will be elaborated based on discursive, practical, perceptual and representational framings of cross-border co-operation as border-transcending and border-confirming projects of regional development, with a specific focus on border governance models and on the role of civil society
Recognising the close interrelationships between social change and paradigm shifts, this book con... more Recognising the close interrelationships between social change and paradigm shifts, this book contributes to an interpretation of conceptual change in the study of borders. In so doing, the book responds to the challenge for generating different ways of conceptualising borders, thereby offering a chance to cope with the ‘real danger of a growing disjuncture between the increasing complexity and differentiation of borders in global politics on the one hand, and yet the apparent simplicity and lack of imagination with which borders and bordering practices continue to be treated on the other’ (Vaughan-Williams, 2012, p. 7). Taking up James Sidaway’s point (2011, pp. 973–4) that, ‘now is the time for a deeper contribution of a focus on borders/bordering within wider social and political theory’, contributions in this volume draw attention to a multiplicity of bordering processes and practices as a relevant lens to illustrate changing configurations of the social and the political. While borders continue to have considerable relevance today, there are ways in which we need to revisit them in light of constantly changing historical, political and social contexts, grasping their shifting and undetermined nature in space and time. This involves a double gaze, simultaneously directed to the changing role of political borders in the globalised world and to a theorisation of the varying relations between borders and society (Rumford, 2006). The second focus is particularly addressed towards a better understanding of the contemporary shapes, configurations and re-configurations of the social and the political in an age of globalization.
Civil society observations of the EU’s geopolitical impacts on its
immediate neighbourhood provid... more Civil society observations of the EU’s geopolitical impacts on its immediate neighbourhood provide a nuanced ‘ground-up’ perspective that eschews historically deterministic interpretations of the EU’s role in the world. While this article is limited to Eastern Europe, it nevertheless highlights some of the challenges facing the EU’s visions of ‘Neighbourhood’ as multilateral and multilayered regional co-operation. After a brief theoretical introduction, the article first characterizes the EU’s geopolitics as a dual project of consolidation and ideational projection; that is as two projects of re-ordering – re-territorializing – interstate relationships. It then addresses three specific and interrelated questions with regard to civil society: 1) how do the EU and its policies affect civil society co-operation agendas and practises, 2) to what extent does civil society participate in the co-development of Neighbourhood Policy and 3) how do civil society actors perceive the role of the EU in promoting cross-border and regional co-operation within the ‘Neighbourhood’? One central issue in developing these questions is that of establishing ‘common’ European values as a condition for successful co-operation. Civil society actors must simultaneously operate within different, often competing, socio-political contexts. A balance between situational ethics and more generally accepted notions of (European) values is thus essential.
Paying particular attention to legal and organizational aspects, this
article attempts to analyze... more Paying particular attention to legal and organizational aspects, this article attempts to analyze transboundary institution-building within the context of European integration and changes in European regional policy. Based on a short case study of the Dutch-German EUREGIO, it is argued that new EC regional development programs and national government support have helped this border area association define strategies enabling it to circumvent legal technicalities, establishing defacto (although not dejure) public agencies responsible for coordinating transboundary cooperation efforts. Additionally, the EUREGIO and other Dutch-German border area associations have vigorously pursued transboundary economic development schemes that have tended to cement working relationships and elicit central government support. Europe's progress in transboundary cooperation must be viewed in the context of developments taking place there, especially the growth of a unitary market and political and economic union. Nevertheless, it is suggested that North American border regions may be able to learn from European experience —particularly in the light of the North American Trade Agreement— developing strategies that mobilize local political sentiment and help overcome the influence of ideologies of national sovereignty at regional, state and national levels
This paper will present evidence of regionalization processes taking shape in “Finnish–Russian” K... more This paper will present evidence of regionalization processes taking shape in “Finnish–Russian” Karelia based on the construction of “familiarity”. This region-building strategy harks back to the well-known Euroregion model developed within the context of European integration. However, if Euroregions can be seen as largely public sector projects of “place-making” the construction of familiarity is a much more socially grounded process. The major shift under consideration is that of transcending the national appropriations of Karelia that have characterized Finnish, Russian and Soviet policies in the past. The focus will be on two aspects: (1) notions of a common regional space in order to promote cross-border co-operation and (2) the re-framing of history and the influence of tourism in developed multifaceted (partly post-national) regional ideas of Karelia. Rather than understand Karelia within the framework of nationalizing historiographies, these contemporary interpretations depict Karelia as a borderland—as a space of cultural and historical ambiguity marked but not dominated by alternating phases of Russification, Finnishization and Sovietization.
The European Union is presently constructing a new model of regional cooperation that includes no... more The European Union is presently constructing a new model of regional cooperation that includes not only economic objectives but also social, cultural and environmental agendas. One of the main challenges this project faces is the development of closer ties to neighbouring states without offering outright membership to the EU. As a result, however, cooperation and security-oriented agendas of the EU will automatically compete with each other for influence. The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) can be thus understood in terms of an ongoing project of re-territorialisation that combines traditional geopolitical concerns and a 'politics of regional difference' with a post-national focus on mutual interdependence and partnership. Evidence for the consequences of these competing territorialities will be presented from the results of European research on civil society networks between the EU and neighbouring states. The focus will be on EU-Ukrainian relations within the ENP context. " Interdependence – political and economic – with the Union's neighbourhood is already a reality. The emergence of the euro as a significant international currency has created new opportunities for intensified economic relations. Closer geographical proximity means the enlarged EU and the new neighbourhood will have an equal stake in furthering efforts to promote trans-national flows of trade and investment as well as even more important shared interests in working together to tackle transboundary threats – from terrorism to airborne pollution. The neighbouring countries are the EU's essential partners: to increase our mutual production, economic growth and external trade, to create an enlarged area of political stability and functioning rule of law, and to foster the mutual exchange of human capital, ideas, knowledge and culture " (EU Commission 2003:3).
'New' regionalism privileges social communication over political 'coercion' as a means to motivat... more 'New' regionalism privileges social communication over political 'coercion' as a means to motivate intermunicipal, interagency and multiactor cooperation in metropolitan regions. Critics claim, however, that the NR is little more than urban crisis management within increasingly unstable post-Fordist and neo-liberal environments. This analysis of emerging 'smart growth' strategies in North America offers a 'pragmatic', context-sensitive and critical reading of region-building in 'advanced capitalist transformation'. Issues at stake involve integral approaches to regional competitiveness, social equity, housing, redevelopment, transport, the environment, public services, etc. As will be demonstrated, however, this more global set of goals is translated locally into action, resulting in highly variegated regional governance landscapes that reflect both specific socio-political and economic contexts and the historical continuity of urban governance reform processes.
Based on a case study of Budapest, the authors discuss how regeneration strategies are being nego... more Based on a case study of Budapest, the authors discuss how regeneration strategies are being negotiated within post-socialist transformation contexts. Post-socialist transformation is in many ways a pronounced case of globalization and accommodation to market-driven logics of urban development. The example of regeneration strategies in Budapest highlights many of the contradictions involved in realizing socially sustainable and integrated regeneration strategies in post-socialist countries. Weak levels of state intervention, institutional fragmentation and powerful market incentives to promote speculative redevelopment tend to hinder the emergence of an affective social dimension. At the same time, the case studies presented here also provide evidence for incremental processes of learning that reflect local socio-spatial realities as well as “grander” designs of urban regeneration. This essay thus addresses processes of experimentation that are taking place in Budapest within a tense political space characterized by market-driven redevelopment, administrative fragmentation, autocratic governing styles and new multiactor approaches—partly funded by the European Union—to socially inclusive regeneration.
The European Union is presently constructing a new model of regional cooperation that includes no... more The European Union is presently constructing a new model of regional cooperation that includes not only economic objectives but also social, cultural and environmental agendas. One of the main challenges this project faces is the development of closer ties to neighbouring states without offering outright membership to the EU. As a result, however, cooperation and security-oriented agendas of the EU will automatically compete with each other for influence. The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) can be thus understood in terms of an ongoing project of re-territorialisation that combines traditional geopolitical concerns and a 'politics of regional difference' with a post-national focus on mutual interdependence and partnership. Evidence for the consequences of these competing territorialities will be presented from the results of European research on civil society networks between the EU and neighbouring states. The focus will be on EU-Ukrainian relations within the ENP context. " Interdependence – political and economic – with the Union's neighbourhood is already a reality. The emergence of the euro as a significant international currency has created new opportunities for intensified economic relations. Closer geographical proximity means the enlarged EU and the new neighbourhood will have an equal stake in furthering efforts to promote trans-national flows of trade and investment as well as even more important shared interests in working together to tackle transboundary threats – from terrorism to airborne pollution. The neighbouring countries are the EU's essential partners: to increase our mutual production, economic growth and external trade, to create an enlarged area of political stability and functioning rule of law, and to foster the mutual exchange of human capital, ideas, knowledge and culture " (EU Commission 2003:3).
The growing interdisciplinarity of border studies has moved discussion away from an exclusive con... more The growing interdisciplinarity of border studies has moved discussion away from an exclusive concern with geographical, physical and tangible borders. Instead, contemporary research appears to privilege cultural, social, economic, religious and other borders that, while often invisible, have major impacts on the way in which human society is (re)ordered and compartmentalized. Similarly, the traditional dividing lines between the domestic and the international and between what it is “inside” and “outside” specific socio-spatial realms have been blurred. This has given way to understandings of borders embedded in new spatialities that challenge dichotomies typical to the territorial world of nation-states. Contemporary borders are mobile: they can be created, shifted, and deconstructed by a range of actors. With this essay the authors engage a central question that characterises contemporary debate, namely: how are formal (e.g. state) and informal (social) processes of border-making related to each other? Borders are constantly reproduced as a part of shifting space-society relationships and the bordering processes they entail. Two aspects of these will be dealt with here: 1) the evolving process of reconfiguring state borders in terms of territorial control, security and sovereignty and 2) the nexus between everyday life-worlds, power relations and constructions of social borders. Both of these processes reflect change and continuity in thinking about borders and they also raise a number of ethical questions that will be briefly discussed as well.
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Papers by James Scott
immediate neighbourhood provide a nuanced ‘ground-up’ perspective
that eschews historically deterministic interpretations of
the EU’s role in the world. While this article is limited to Eastern
Europe, it nevertheless highlights some of the challenges facing the
EU’s visions of ‘Neighbourhood’ as multilateral and multilayered
regional co-operation. After a brief theoretical introduction, the
article first characterizes the EU’s geopolitics as a dual project of
consolidation and ideational projection; that is as two projects of
re-ordering – re-territorializing – interstate relationships. It then
addresses three specific and interrelated questions with regard to
civil society: 1) how do the EU and its policies affect civil society
co-operation agendas and practises, 2) to what extent does
civil society participate in the co-development of Neighbourhood
Policy and 3) how do civil society actors perceive the role of the
EU in promoting cross-border and regional co-operation within the
‘Neighbourhood’? One central issue in developing these questions is
that of establishing ‘common’ European values as a condition for
successful co-operation. Civil society actors must simultaneously
operate within different, often competing, socio-political contexts.
A balance between situational ethics and more generally accepted
notions of (European) values is thus essential.
article attempts to analyze transboundary institution-building within the
context of European integration and changes in European regional policy. Based on a short case study of the Dutch-German EUREGIO, it is argued that new EC regional development programs and national government support have helped this border area association define strategies enabling it to circumvent legal technicalities, establishing defacto (although not dejure) public agencies responsible for coordinating transboundary cooperation efforts. Additionally, the EUREGIO and other Dutch-German border area associations have vigorously pursued transboundary economic development schemes that have tended to cement working relationships and elicit central government support. Europe's progress in transboundary cooperation must be viewed in the context of developments taking place there, especially the growth of a unitary market and political and economic union. Nevertheless, it is suggested that North American border regions may be able to learn from European experience —particularly in the light of the North American Trade Agreement— developing strategies that mobilize local political sentiment and help overcome the influence of ideologies of national sovereignty at regional, state and national levels
However, if Euroregions can be seen as largely public sector projects of “place-making” the construction of familiarity is a much more socially grounded process. The major shift under consideration is that of transcending the national appropriations of Karelia that have
characterized Finnish, Russian and Soviet policies in the past. The focus will be on two aspects: (1) notions of a common regional space in order to promote cross-border co-operation and (2) the re-framing of history and the influence of tourism in developed multifaceted (partly post-national) regional ideas of Karelia. Rather than understand Karelia within the framework of nationalizing historiographies, these contemporary interpretations depict Karelia as a borderland—as a space of cultural and historical ambiguity marked but not dominated by
alternating phases of Russification, Finnishization and Sovietization.
post-socialist countries. Weak levels of state intervention, institutional fragmentation and powerful market incentives to promote speculative redevelopment tend to hinder the emergence of an affective social dimension. At the same time, the case studies presented here also provide evidence for incremental processes of learning that reflect local socio-spatial realities as well as “grander” designs of urban regeneration. This essay thus addresses processes of experimentation that are taking place in Budapest within a tense political space characterized by market-driven redevelopment, administrative fragmentation, autocratic governing styles and new multiactor approaches—partly funded by the European Union—to socially inclusive regeneration.
With this essay the authors engage a central question that characterises contemporary debate, namely: how are formal (e.g. state) and informal (social) processes of border-making related to each other? Borders are constantly reproduced as a part of shifting space-society relationships and the bordering processes they entail. Two aspects of these will be dealt with here: 1) the evolving process of reconfiguring state borders in terms of territorial control, security and sovereignty and 2) the nexus between everyday life-worlds, power relations and constructions of social borders. Both of these processes reflect change and continuity in thinking about borders and they also raise a number of ethical questions that will be briefly discussed as well.
immediate neighbourhood provide a nuanced ‘ground-up’ perspective
that eschews historically deterministic interpretations of
the EU’s role in the world. While this article is limited to Eastern
Europe, it nevertheless highlights some of the challenges facing the
EU’s visions of ‘Neighbourhood’ as multilateral and multilayered
regional co-operation. After a brief theoretical introduction, the
article first characterizes the EU’s geopolitics as a dual project of
consolidation and ideational projection; that is as two projects of
re-ordering – re-territorializing – interstate relationships. It then
addresses three specific and interrelated questions with regard to
civil society: 1) how do the EU and its policies affect civil society
co-operation agendas and practises, 2) to what extent does
civil society participate in the co-development of Neighbourhood
Policy and 3) how do civil society actors perceive the role of the
EU in promoting cross-border and regional co-operation within the
‘Neighbourhood’? One central issue in developing these questions is
that of establishing ‘common’ European values as a condition for
successful co-operation. Civil society actors must simultaneously
operate within different, often competing, socio-political contexts.
A balance between situational ethics and more generally accepted
notions of (European) values is thus essential.
article attempts to analyze transboundary institution-building within the
context of European integration and changes in European regional policy. Based on a short case study of the Dutch-German EUREGIO, it is argued that new EC regional development programs and national government support have helped this border area association define strategies enabling it to circumvent legal technicalities, establishing defacto (although not dejure) public agencies responsible for coordinating transboundary cooperation efforts. Additionally, the EUREGIO and other Dutch-German border area associations have vigorously pursued transboundary economic development schemes that have tended to cement working relationships and elicit central government support. Europe's progress in transboundary cooperation must be viewed in the context of developments taking place there, especially the growth of a unitary market and political and economic union. Nevertheless, it is suggested that North American border regions may be able to learn from European experience —particularly in the light of the North American Trade Agreement— developing strategies that mobilize local political sentiment and help overcome the influence of ideologies of national sovereignty at regional, state and national levels
However, if Euroregions can be seen as largely public sector projects of “place-making” the construction of familiarity is a much more socially grounded process. The major shift under consideration is that of transcending the national appropriations of Karelia that have
characterized Finnish, Russian and Soviet policies in the past. The focus will be on two aspects: (1) notions of a common regional space in order to promote cross-border co-operation and (2) the re-framing of history and the influence of tourism in developed multifaceted (partly post-national) regional ideas of Karelia. Rather than understand Karelia within the framework of nationalizing historiographies, these contemporary interpretations depict Karelia as a borderland—as a space of cultural and historical ambiguity marked but not dominated by
alternating phases of Russification, Finnishization and Sovietization.
post-socialist countries. Weak levels of state intervention, institutional fragmentation and powerful market incentives to promote speculative redevelopment tend to hinder the emergence of an affective social dimension. At the same time, the case studies presented here also provide evidence for incremental processes of learning that reflect local socio-spatial realities as well as “grander” designs of urban regeneration. This essay thus addresses processes of experimentation that are taking place in Budapest within a tense political space characterized by market-driven redevelopment, administrative fragmentation, autocratic governing styles and new multiactor approaches—partly funded by the European Union—to socially inclusive regeneration.
With this essay the authors engage a central question that characterises contemporary debate, namely: how are formal (e.g. state) and informal (social) processes of border-making related to each other? Borders are constantly reproduced as a part of shifting space-society relationships and the bordering processes they entail. Two aspects of these will be dealt with here: 1) the evolving process of reconfiguring state borders in terms of territorial control, security and sovereignty and 2) the nexus between everyday life-worlds, power relations and constructions of social borders. Both of these processes reflect change and continuity in thinking about borders and they also raise a number of ethical questions that will be briefly discussed as well.