This working paper highlights the thematic field “mobility and transports” and presents the challenges which occur in terms of territorial development for the Greater Region. It specifically focuses on the territorial distribution of cross-border worker movements and on the reliance on cars within the Greater Region, as well as on the influence of European policies on the way challenges inherent to cross-border transport are addressed.
The thematic document highlights various aspects of cross-border spatial development based on the following central themes: spatial planning instruments, promotion of cross-border cooperation, health care, transport infrastructures and services, territorial integration through the combination of transport modes and creation of European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation. The contributions pertain to different cross-border spaces in Europe.
The collection approaches the question of cross-border work from different methodological and disciplinary angles, in order to provide an overview of the research on the subject and to analyze the stakes involved in and ways of seeing this activity. The first section describes the configurations, evolution, and scope of cross-border work. The linguistic practices, displacements, and profiles of cross-border workers are elicited in order that these workers may, in the second section of the collection, be compared to others in such regions as the Upper Rhineland and the Canton of Geneva. Rather more analytical, the third section then deals with the dynamic effects of cross-border work on the development of economies, urbanization, physical spaces, and governance. Finally, the fourth and final section raises the question of the social construction of the status of cross-border workers, by way of regulations, conventions, and socio-political representations, etc.).
