The articles in this edited collection deal with the conditions and obstacles of the cross-border flow of information. The question is also raised as to why the development of a European media public sphere has been a difficult undertaking. The investigations are mainly concerned with the Greater Region. It is clear that media production is still largely national in character. Above all, the concept of the “journalistic field” (Bourdieu) is used to contribute to an expanded understanding of European media phenomena.
This book examines the histories, the inequalities, as well as the “Othering” that persists in many borderlands. The author declares that her “normative intent is to move toward greater binational equalities in interdependent states with emphasis on wages and GDPs, but with the latter discounted for environmental damage, and the long-term security threat whether we live in borderlands or the mainstream” (p. 236 f.). By proposing film suggestions, weblinks to maps and other visual graphics, a comprehensive and interdisciplinary bibliography in every chapter, as well as short notes on research, observations, and case studies, this book offers a broad perspective on borders and borderlands.
The Interregional Labour Market Observatory (IBA) is a network of specialized labor market institutes, all of which operate in the Greater Region. On behalf of the Summit of the Greater Region, the IBA collects data on labor markets in the Greater Region. This data is used to write reports on the labor market situation in the Greater Region. In addition to structural reporting based on comparable statistical data from the sub-regions of the Greater Region, the publication contains qualitative information on thematic focus areas.
The EUBORDERSCAPES project analyzed the conceptual changes in the study of borders that have taken place in the past decades. The project focused on the social significance and subjectivities of state borders. “Objective” categories of state territoriality were critically interrogating. Parallel to the study of conceptual change, the main research question was “how [do] different and often contested conceptualisations of state borders (in terms of their political, social, cultural and symbolic significance) resonate in concrete contexts at the level of everyday life”.
The focus of this text is the boundaries between disciplines, subjects, specialized fields of knowledge as well as epistemic and knowledge cultures. The author addresses differences in cross-border and integrative research with the term boundary work. Different methods of boundary work, such as exploring professional profiles and identities; conceptual work and boundary work with variables, indicators and thresholds, are presented.
This dissertation examines the influence of two EU policies, the European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) and the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T), which are meant to develop cross-border transport within the EU. It shows that the two EU policies support cross-border transport at different levels. Both policies need to be more interlinked in order to complement each other more effectively. They influence the political and planning documents at the various national administrative levels and their practical implementation in a differentiated manner. The final implementation of the EU policy objectives and the cross-border transport initiatives is strongly influenced by the different initial positions in the member states.
Borders introduce a division into the world. According to the author, this definition has four consequences for a theory of the border: (1) the border is in between, (2) the border is in motion, (3) the border is a process of circulation, (4) the border is not reducible to space. Based on these four consequences he outlines a methodology, or a « critical limology » as he phrases it.
Included in an edited collection focusing on social services of general interest in Europe, this chapter considers the concept of "social service" as it is understood in France, and addresses concerns relating to spatial equality to diagnose issues of accessibility to maternity wards across the Greater Region. The representations provided differ from Anglo-Saxon approaches to measuring the territorial impact of social services of general interest, by taking a predominantly social approach. As the focus of the study, the Greater Region exemplifies the heterogeneity of issues of accessibility seen across neighboring regions.
Border areas are often posited as “laboratories of European integration.” But what is the significance of the notion of the cross-border region beyond such discourses and symbols? By defining a region as a construct which is at once the construction of an identity, a territory, and an institution which is perpetuated over time, this text identifies and questions the particularities of this process within the cross-border context. The study is based on a discourse analysis, the operational use of the concepts of cross-border territoriality, and the supraregional institution. The legal framework for cooperation, provided by the EGTC (The European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation) in its role as the judicial instrument of the EU, is analyzed in detail.
