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.
The cross-border research workshops were organized by the researchers from the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme of the University of Lorraine (MHSL) in collaboration with researchers from the University of Luxembourg. The main topic was the definition of the concept of “border.” Between 2008 and 2009, three workshops took place in order to provide the researchers with a meeting place where they could share and exchange ideas and knowledge.
