Border areas are spaces for exchanges and networking – cultural, linguistic, historical and economic. The latest research on the teaching and learning of neighbour languages in the German-French border regions of SaarLorLux and the Upper Rhine shows the important role of border regions as laboratories for European integration. The articles in this collection address a wide range of aspects of the academic debate around cross-border issues in foreign language teaching. It therefore contributes not only to a deeper scientific debate on this complex topic, but also provides inspiration for a greater integration of the border (area)-related educational aspects of (language) teaching on both sides of the border.
Mezzadra redraws research paths in Border Studies since the 1990s with special focus on Europe. He points to practices of border-crossing, mobility, proliferation, change and sealing of borders and reflects on concepts like differential inclusion. With reference to examples from Italy and the life-threatening struggles of migrants who cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe, he points to the current politics of violence at external borders. Furthermore, he shows how the current attempts to seal (western) borders resonate with political discourses about nationalism and the spread of authoritarian neoliberalism. At the end, Mezzadra mentions the logistical turn and proposes an approach that combines logistical studies with research on globalized capitalism and critical border studies.
The UniGR-Center for Border Studies Border Textures working group was set up in 2015 to pursue and further develop the cultural orientation of Border Studies in the Greater Region. This research orientation focuses on the symbolic-social dimension of borders, which it addresses from both high and popular cultural angles and everyday cultural angles. To do this the working group has developed the Border Textures approach, which, as a methodology and heuristic, addresses the practises and discourses around borders with their actors, media, materialisations, effects, places and the complex interactions between them. The approach forms an instrument for analysis and refection that helps to understand the social and cultural workings and mechanisms of border (de)stabilisation.
In this article "Introduction. Theorizing Borders" Chris Rumford examines different transformation processes affecting borders and boundaries. The author demonstrates this with regard to the role of political borders, but also the changing relations between boundaries and society. This also results in changing perceptions of borders, to which attention should be paid. The multiple types of borders that now exist are illustrated through a series of examples before concluding that further theoretical-conceptual discussion turns out to be highly relevant.
The aim of the TEIN network, led by the Euro-Institut in Strasbourg, is to contribute to the process of European integration by training the actors involved in cross-border projects. Its members are different research and training organisations from more than 10 European Union countries. Its activities focus on the sharing of good practices and knowledge of cross-border issues and well as producing and disseminating educational tools for cross-border practitioners.
The Greater Geneva consultation is intended to renew the way territories look to the future taking into account sustainable development issues. This consultation involves the active participation of all the actors in the territory along with experts in territorial development and other related fields. The process has produced 7 concrete, mapped-out proposals for the transition of the cross-border territory of Greater Geneva. The aim of these proposals is to raise awareness among citizens, politicians and other actors of the urgency of the climate change issue and the wide variety of possible ways of responding to it.
This collective and multidisciplinary publications questions the notion of the border, whose realities and existence are today being challenged under the effect of globalisation. Four disciplines come together here: law, history, sociology and economics. The publication offers historical and epistemological reflections arising out of analyses of European border situations. It highlights the recent changes in the border situations in the European space and the social dynamics running through them.
This article draws on the exchanges at the different sessions organised at the 7th Association for Borderlands Studies World Conference. Each session was devoted to the question of borders in a specific part of the globe: Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and North America. The primary aim of these sessions was to develop a shared approach on these different territories. This article summarises the exchanges that took place and assesses the global approach proposed.
The publication looks at the diverse representations mobilised in connection with cross-border populations and the contradictions that these representations reveal depending on the actors or institutions that produce them. It identifies the different actors that produce such representations and offers some insights into how they are perceived among the inhabitants of border regions and how they have evolved in the recent history of European integration.
The article takes a look back at the emergence of the field of border studies at the beginning of the 21st century. A look back at the emergence of the field at the beginning of the 21st century. It insists on the need to build a common language and shared concepts, but without defending the idea of a single, unified theory. This text puts forward a programme to follow to delve deeper into the research themes in the field, a programme which places a great deal of importance on the analysis and understanding of individual accounts and to everyday experiences from the study field..
