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.
High unemployment rates on one side of a border and training opportunities on the other, the lack of training programmes for specialised jobs on the one side of the border and well-defined vocational programmes on the other side: cross-border vocational education and training (VET) is an increasingly used tool to accommodate the differing needs inside the European Union in recent years. This paper present explains and analyses the diverse approaches and concepts of tailor-made as well as more standardised cross-border VET programmes in the Greater Region SaarLorLux (DE, FR, LUX, BE) and explain the different mobility types.
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.
The subject proposed concerns the geography of the retail sector and consumption in a specific type of area: the double border areas on either side of each of the dyads in the Three Borders Triangle (Belgium, France, Luxembourg). The article focuses on the retail chains that have become dominant in these three countries, by studying:
firstly, the spatial development strategies pursued by the management of these groups in terms of locations in the border areas,
secondly, the adaptations to certain national directives made by the managers of outlets situated in areas characterised by fierce competition due to the discontinuities generated by 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.
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 article illustrates the very different developments of the subregions making up the Greater Region, but also the similarities (e.g. guest worker migration in the 1960s and 70s in the Greater Region, ethnic Germans who migrated to Germany in recent decades or American forces in Rhineland-Palatinate. The article looks in depth at each subregion, sets out the specificities of the regions and analyses the reasons behind them. The development of the subregions is also examined in the context of their historical and economic development and the removal of the borders under the Schengen Agreement and the emergence of simplified cross-border migration (e.g. also atypical cross-border commuters) within the Greater Region. The different approaches to integration are also described.
