Theories – Concepts – Terms

This Critical Dictionary on Borders, Cross-Border Cooperation and European Integration takes up the challenge to answer these questions. It is the first encyclopedia, which combines two so far not well-interconnected interdisciplinary research fields, i.e. Border Studies and European Studies. Organized in an alphabetical order, it contains 209 articles written by 124 authors from different countries and scientific disciplines, which are accompanied by 66 maps. The articles deal with theory, terminology, concepts, actors, themes and spaces of cross-border cooperation at European borders and in borderlands of and around the European Union (EU).

In the face of current environmental challenges, the article analyzes the interrelated processes of commoning and b/ordering in relation to transboundary environmental commons. The author suggests a multi-scalar approach to the governance of transboundary resources and points to power relations, distribution conflicts and questions of costs and benefits for different stakeholders at intersecting scales. She emphasizes that borders are not static (geo)political configurations but administrative categories that change in relation to commoning practices performed by transboundary communities of commoning.

The author, drawing on the theoretical conceptual developments and changes in the field of border area research during the last decades, identifies and describes three analytical trends ("shifts"): the processual shift, the multiplicity shift and the complexity shift. These are not separate from each other, but refer to specific orientations in border research. Starting from the observation that in the wake of the so-called border turn there was an increase in awareness of borders, and against the background of the practice turn, which no longer sees culture as being characterised by representations, but by practices, through the three shifts new possibilities arise for examining borders, which focus more sharply on the processual and performative elements of the border.

In the article three dimensions of border of aesthetic are discussed: firstly, the border as a place where aesthetic phenomena develop, secondly, the aesthetic representation of borders and thirdly, concepts of border aesthetics. While these three dimensions are explained and their different constituent elements and developments are traced by means of examples and conceptual discussions, the "special creative potential of representation" (p. 451), that the border offers is explored. At the same time, it cannot be overlooked that the different dimensions of border aesthetics neither follow on from each other in linear fashion, nor contradict each other, but rather they are connected to each other by means of fluid transitions and intersections.

The autors develop a new understanding of borders that evolves around the notions of technoecoogy in relation to Felix Guattari and the idea of feminist transversal politics as proposed by Nira Yuva-Davis. They advocate for a solidarity that extends beyond the human and that encompasses more-than-human liefworlds, too, since people and their mulit-species others are entangled in complex border relations. By pointing to two examples that relate borders, people, other species, geologies, technologies, politics and discourses of (more-than-human) exclusion, the authors foreground these entangled relations and the agential cuts enacted by bordering processes.

The six contributions to this forum on feminist border theory offer different perspectives on the relations between gender, borders, power, identity, difference and solidarity. The authors use feminist theory to illustrate and analyze gendered border politics, violent border struggles, and practices of bordering at and beyond national borders. They illustrate their arguments using examples from the US-Mexican border and Italian borders, referring to domestic workers’ movements, racist politics of division and family separations. Furthermore, they show as well how bordered identities, Neplanta activism and coalitions across differences in border(land) spaces can lead to new forms of solidarity, identity and resistance.

The article theorizes border-making in the context of urban development in Berlin (Germany) and Budapest (Hungary). It interprets urban borders as social institutions that emerge locally out of social relations and transform urban spaces. These bordered urban spaces serve as markers of socio-spatial distinction and are constantly (re)created and negotiated over time. Urban borders contribute to the construction of a sense of place and are created in the processes of place-making that relate to the bordering mechanism of attribution, appropriation and representation of places.

This training was set up in response to the complex issues that the Latin American population faced in this part of the world.  The border region, which includes 6 Mexican states and 4 American states, has specific characteristics in terms of demography and migratory dynamics. This vast territory studied has become a complex ecological, geopolitical and economic unit whose development significantly impacts the United States, Mexico and part of Latin America.

In recent decades, Border Studies have gained importance and have seen a noticeable increase in development.  This manifests itself in an increased institutionalisation, a differentiation of the areas of research interest and a conceptual reorientation that is interested in examining processes.  So far, however, little attention has been paid to questions about (inter-)disciplinary self-perception and the methodological foundations of Border Studies and the associated consequences for research activities.  This thematic issue addresses these desiderata and brings together articles that deal with their (inter-)disciplinary foundations as well as method(olog)ical and practical research questions.  The authors also provide sound insights into a disparate field of work, disclose practical research strategies, and present methodologically sophisticated systematizations.