German

The policy paper 'Action Needs for Spatial Development in the Greater Region from a Research Perspective' summarises key findings of researchers from the UniGR-Center for Border Studies in five areas relevant to the Greater Region (demography and migration, transport, employment and economic development, energy land-scapes, cross-border governance) and formulates options for action for planning practice and political deci-sion-makers. In addition, it addresses the exchange of knowledge between research and politics.

As a reaction to the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, many people all over the world were confronted with a rupture of social and spatial routines. In Germany, the state governments took a leading role trying to contain the further spread of the pandemic by issuing ordinances and regulations. In this context, the way how laws and rules pervade places of everyday life took on another (immediately perceptible) dimension for many people. This article aims at contributing a local perspective on this issue, focusing on the measures taken by the Saarland government. Through the qualitative method of autophotography, individual points of view on the underlying interactions of law, space and society are moved into the center of attention. Through the sociospatial perspective, the impacts of the measures taken by the local government are called into question.

In and with this new issue of Borders in Perspective we invite you to engage in productive boundary work and encourage you to critically examine the relationship between nature and culture in the Anthropocene. In the current geological epoch of the Anthropocene, in which humankind is seen as the central driving force for global changes in ecological systems, seemingly secure boundaries between nature and society are on the one hand dissolving and on the other hand being redrawn elsewhere. The boundaries between society and nature, science and politics or individual disciplines are no longer clearly and easy to define. In view of pressing phenomena such as climate change, the loss of biodiversity and growing social inequalities, cross-border research is needed - research that does not stop at disciplinary boundaries, but transcends them. This issue is therefore intended to provide an impetus for exploring boundary phenomena in the relationship between nature and society, which have so far not been the focus of border studies. The authors of the new issue of Borders in Perspective, for example, examine the various ways in which borders are drawn and dissolved in the Anthropocene from multiple perspectives and multidisciplinary directions.

Cross-border regions are often laboratories for the circulation of ideas and practices. This article asks whether, in Greater Geneva region, it is possible to transpose the cooperative housing model, fairly developed in Switzerland, into the French context, where this type of housing is less common. Using the example of Viry, a French municipality located within the institutional perimeter of Greater Geneva, the article analyzes the possibilities and limits of such a transposition. The results show the difficulty in emulating a context specific to reproducing the Swiss model of cooperatives in France. The legislative and institutional differences, but also cultural differences with regard to housing in its various dimensions are all obstacles to reproducing, identically in France, proven methods of construction of cooperative housing in Switzerland. It is therefore necessary to develop creative adaptations of different kinds so that the original model can find a place in the new context.

In the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, borders have become relevant (again) in political action and in people's everyday lives within a very short time. This was especially true for the inhabitants of border regions, whose cross-border life worlds were suddenly irritated by closed borders and police controls. However, the COVID-19 pandemic also led to an increased evidence of social, cultural, economic, health and mobility boundaries beyond national borders, which raised pressing questions about social inequalities. The authors shed light on these dynamics from the perspective of territorial borders, social boundaries and (dis)continuities in border regions through a variety of thematic and spatial approaches. The critical observations and scientific comments were made during the lockdown in April and May 2020 and provide insights into the events during the global pandemic. 

In November 2018, the UniGR-CBS organized a joint workshop of its researchers and the scientific council of the SDTGR/REKGR Interreg project as well as stakeholders from the Greater Region. It served as a place to reflect on the spatial development of the Greater Region from a scientific perspective.

This Territorial Science Echo highlights essential facets of governance that may prove relevant for the future development of the Greater Region. In particular, it shows how thematic cooperation and conflicts contribute to the establishment of governance structures. The paper deals with the topics of governance in general, participation and housing as well as the external relations of the Greater Region, formulates essential challenges and recommendations, and is thus to be understood as a suggestion in the professional discourse for the further design of the spatial development concept of the Greater Region.

The paper presents a practice-sociological approach to the description and analysis of cross-border cooperation. For this purpose, the development of cooperation research, its characteristic orientations as well as the fundamentals of practical theoretical thinking will be outlined. Based on this, the heuristic figure of thought of cross-border practice formation is developed, which breaks with the premises of conventional cooperation research. It will be further differentiated on the basis of four challenges of cross-border cooperation, in order to arrive at an alternative perspective on cross-border cooperation. The following is an outlook, which deals with the research-specific features of the approach presented, with a view to a future practice-sociological and multidisciplinary cooperation research.

The working paper examines the theme of energy and addresses the challenges of spatial development in the Greater Region. It addresses the concept of energy system transformation and focuses on energy systems and carriers, in particular the expansion of wind energy and biomass energy production in relation to  the development of nuclear fossil energy sources in Germany and France.

The working paper examines the themes of employment and economic development and addresses the challenges of spatial development in the Greater Region. It focuses in particular on industrial history, employment and cross-border work in the Greater Region.