Governance – Power – Cooperation

Analysing the database of the Luxmobil 2017 survey, this article presents the main outcomes concerning the spatial distributions of employment and modal choices related to commuting of both resident and cross-border workers within the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. This analysis highlights the significant disparities regarding these distributions, the predominant car dependency and the required conditions to achieve a high modal share of public transport. Confronted with the challenging European objective of decarbonisation by the year 2050 and considering the national and supra-regional strategic documents, in order to coordinate urban development with the public transport offer, a voluntarist cross-border ‘transit-oriented development’ policy appears to be necessary. 

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.

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 current times, the coronavirus is spreading and taking its toll all over the world. Inspite of having developed into a global pandemic, COVID-19 is oftentimes met with local national(ist) reactions. Many states pursue isolationist politics by closing and enforcing borders and by focusing entirely on their own functioning in this moment of crisis. This nationalist/nationally-oriented rebordering politics goes hand in hand with what might be termed ‘linguistic rebordering,’ i.e. the attempts of constructing the disease as something foreign-grown and by apportioning the blame to ‘the other.’ This paper aims at laying bare the interconnectedness of these geopolitical and linguistic/discursive rebordering politics. It questions their efficacy and makes a plea for cross-border solidarity.

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.