The three-year project focuses on the Greater Region SaarLorLux+ and the Brandenburg/Lebus region as zones of contact and transition at national borders. The border closures and increased controls in the course of the pandemic have made clear, especially in border regions, how closely the European Union is already interconnected at its territorial interfaces.
The members of the Association of Teachers of History and Geography (Association des Professeurs d’Histoire et de Géographie) regularly holds plenary sessions as part of a thematic conference. In 2019 the association held its conference from 23 to 25 October in Metz and Nancy and worked on the theme "Lorraine, land of fronts and borders" (La Lorraine, un territoire de fronts et de frontières). The UniGR-Center for Border Studies (UniGR-CBS) was involved in the planning of the programme in several ways.
The UniGR-Center for Border Studies was the partner of the second Association for Borderlands Studies (ABS) World Conference. The 5-day event on the theme "Border-Making and its Consequences" was held from 10-14 July 2018 at the University of Vienna (AT) and the Central European University in Budapest (H) and was attended by 450 border researchers from over 50 countries.
Border research has undergone profound changes in the last few decades, which has altered the preoccupation with national borders as unchallenged phenomena. This reorientation is based on constructivist approaches and queries the processes of establishing, relativising, shifting or overcoming borders.
This book series launched by Astrid M. Fellner, Florian Weber (Saarland University) and Olaf Kühne (University of Tübingen) is aimed at border researchers in the spatial, cultural and social science fields wishing to publish both theoretical-conceptual and empirically oriented work.
In order to facilitate European territorial cohesion, the linkage of member states by means of efficient cross-border transport infrastructures and services is an important factor. Many cross-border transport challenges have existed in everyday life. They have hampered smooth passenger and freight flows within the EU. Two EU policies, namely European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) and the Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T), promote enhancing cross-border transport through cooperation in soft spaces. This dissertation explores the influence of these two EU policies on cross-border transport and further European integration.
How do cross-border regions come about and what characterises them? The 19 contributors to this collection examine the social experience of the EU's internal borders through the example of the SaarLorLux Greater Region. They discuss the practices of institutional actors and inhabitants of border regions in a number of areas: the economy, the job market, political cooperation as well as everyday life, the media and culture. The collection contains 16 contributions in French and German by 19 authors from Germany, France and Luxembourg.
Cross-border residential mobility appeared in the wake of the formal opening of European borders and is mainly brought about by national disparities in the real estate market in border regions. In the last 10 to 15 years we observe considerable residential flows from Luxembourg to its neighbouring countries which bring about major changes in the spatial and social composition of border towns. The research project CB-RES investigates the experiences and identity constructions of cross-border migrants as well as of autochthonous inhabitants in German border villages.
Cross-border areas are often presented as "laboratories of European integration". Beyond the speeches and the symbols, what actual meaning lies beneath the notion of the "cross-border region"? Based on work done for a PhD, this monograph sets out the challenges in the construction of cross-border governance. The analysis largely focuses on the Greater Region.
The Governance and Sustainability Lab takes up the challenge of exploring policies and governance mechanisms to cope with socio-ecological change and to steer development towards sustainability. As an interdisciplinary team, we employ multifaceted perspectives on sustainability, resource management and governance and steering processes in local borderscapes as well as in cities of the global North and South.
In cross-border regions, often functional and thematic interrelations exist across national borders. Therefore, the coordination of the cross-border territorial development is crucial for a future-oriented spatial development. This topic is examined in the publication project.
In many border regions the number of cross-border commuters is constantly increasing, so that some regions can reach 40% of cross-border commuters. In the third UniGR-Center for Border Studies themed journal authors examine organization of the cross-border labor markets and what challenges result from it.
GR-Atlas is an interactive, interdisciplinary, thematic atlas of the “Greater Region SaarLorLux,” which comprises the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, the Belgian region Wallonia, the former French region Lorraine as well as the German federal states Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate.
Karina Pallagst from the TU Kaiserslautern initiated and led the working group "Border Futures" from 2014 to 2016 together with Andrea Hartz from agl Hartz ⋅ Saad ⋅ Wendl within the framework of the Akademie für Raum- und Landesplanung (ARL). The working group analysed the practice of cross-border cooperation in the Hesse/Rhineland-Palatinate/Saarland region and published its results in Open Access.
