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In recent years, various low-threshold and often creative methods and tools have been developed, considering the specific requirements of vulnerable persons to explore their identities, experiences, knowledge, opinions and needs. The idea of LEGO® Serious Play® is based on play pedagogy. Playing allows to distance oneself from everyday life by sliding into a world of imaginations, ideas and utopias while concurrently keeping the ties to reality (Heimlich, 2015). LEGO® Serious Play® uses metaphors to enable participants to express playfully their thoughts and ideas. As the building process with Lego bricks is physical and haptic, LEGO® Serious Play® is a low-threshold method to work with vulnerable groups (Cavaliero, 2017). The following article will concentrate on the use of LEGO® Serious Play® as creative exploration method and its possibilities and limitations when used to empower young migrants in vulnerable conditions in the Germany and Luxembourg in the H2020 research project MIMY.

The notion of “vulnerability” occupies a central role in academic literature, policymaking, humanitarian debates, and everyday discourses on migration and asylum. Its popularity has led some academics and practitioners to use “vulnerability” as a self-explanatory condition or phenomenon. However, a common and systematic understanding of the concept is still missing, and the moral and political meaning often ascribed to this notion may have (un)intended detrimental consequences for those migrants deemed vulnerable. Thus, this paper sets out to critically unpack and highlight the complexities hidden behind this notion in order to provide a conceptual analysis of vulnerability in the context of migration. We do so by (1) providing an overview of definitions of vulnerability across different fields of research, (2) identifying common conceptualizations or types of vulnerability and discussing their implications, and (3) highlighting possible negative societal and psychological consequences of its implementation in the context of migration. Finally, we propose (4) a new conceptual model for understanding vulnerability in the context of migration, showing how this notion can become a useful analytical tool in migration research.

Young people involved in geographical mobility face diverse gendered mobility settings and gender inequalities. How do the youth involved in diverse mobility types deal with adverse circumstances caused by gender beliefs and gender prejudices? To answer this question, problem-centred interviews with young people (18-29) are analysed using Grounded Theory. These young people are European citizens and they are involved in five mobility types: higher education, employment, voluntary work, vocational education & training, and entrepreneurship. We apply Emirbayer and Mische’s (1998) categories (iterational, projective and practical-evaluative) to the analysis of gendered mobility narratives as unequal gender perceptions reveal themselves in the context of different types of youth mobility. The analysis allows to see the ways young people reflect on their actions: refusal of gender beliefs, acceptance or rejection of gendered prejudices, individual vs. collective solutions, demand for equality in numbers, comparison of gendered workplaces and assumption of leadership in initiating mobility. At the same time, we observe how geographical mobilities can increase the critical sensibility of youth towards gender inequalities, contributing to new conceptualisation of agentic responses to structural constraints.

The Covid-19 pandemic took most EU Member States of the European Union by surprise, as they underestimated the rapid spread of the contagion across the continent. The response of the EU Member States was asymmetrical, individualistic and significantly slow. The first measures taken were to close down the internal borders. The response of the European Union was even slower, and it was not until 17th March 2020 that the external borders were closed. These actions affected legal migration into the European Union from four perspectives: it affected 1) the mobility of those third-country nationals who were on a temporary stay in the EU Member States; 2) the entry of third-country nationals to do seasonal work; 3) legal migrants entering and staying; and 4) the status of the third-country nationals already residing in the EU Member States, especially those experiencing a loss of income. This article will deal with the measures taken by the EU Member States to manage the immigration services, as a case study how Luxembourg dealt to avoid that temporary staying migrants and regular migrants fall into irregularity. Finally, we will focus on the vulnerability of third-country nationals with the rising risk of unemployment and the risk of being returned to their country of origin. The article will also analyse access to healthcare and unemployment benefits.

Cross-border cooperation, border regions, soft spaces? This special issue approaches cross-border informal planning processes in cross-border regions by analysing them from a perspective that combines networks, governance and territorialization. Such a relational perspective will be developed by papers which deal with a variety of European cross-border regions and empirical evidence related to the nexus of networks, governance and territorialization.

Research on the governance of refugees has until recently remained conceptualized with the national perspective as a starting point. This article compares asylum governance at the local level between Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, focusing on the often sensitive and highly debated issue of reception and accommodation. The central idea is to determine convergences and divergences of local reception structures and efforts, and how they are linked to the governance levels situated above them. Despite municipalities having been greatly affected by, and having shaped in practice, reception and integration processes of asylum seekers and refugees, so far there has been little in terms of comparative research across countries in Europe. Our findings emerging from the comparison suggest that top-down implementations of asylum reception have created numerous problems and protest on the ground, especially when the local population and local stakeholders were not involved in the decision-making process. On the one hand, the case studies show that within each national setting, the local regimes and agencies can shape divergent reception outcomes in terms of integrative or disintegrative policies. On the other hand, converging developments in the local cases across national contexts, such as the impact of the local political climate, suggest the crucial impact of local reception regimes and agencies, notwithstanding varying regulatory frameworks and procedures. We thus underline the importance of local-to-local comparison, and not only national-to-national, when it comes to analysing refugee reception. Forschungen zur Implementierung von Asylpolitik verbleiben meist auf der nationalen Betrachtungsebene. Dieser Artikel nimmt einen lokalen Fokus ein, um Aufnahmepolitiken von Asylsuchenden in Deutschland, Luxemburg und den Niederlanden zu vergleichen. Der Beitrag hat zum Ziel, konvergierende und divergierende Strategien, Praktiken und Effekte zu identifizieren und die Verbindungen zu den übergeordneten Politikebenen zu analysieren. Obgleich die kommunale Ebene ganz wesentlich die Aufnahme von Asylsuchenden verantwortet und individuelle Aufnahme- und Integrationspraktiken entwickelt, gibt es dazu bislang kaum länderübergreifende vergleichende Forschung. Die Befunde unserer vergleichenden Lokalforschung zeigen, dass die zentrale Steuerung der Aufnahme Asylsuchender auf kommunaler Ebene verschiedene Probleme und Protesthaltungen erzeugt hat, insbesondere wenn die Bevölkerung und die Entscheidungsträger vor Ort nicht in den Entscheidungsprozess einbezogen wurden. Es zeigt sich, dass innerhalb des identischen nationalen Rahmens Aufnahmepolitiken höchst unterschiedliche Resultate zeitigen können, z.B. durch die Implementierung integrativer oder partikularer Politikansätze. Andererseits weisen konvergierende Entwicklungen in unseren Fallbeispielen auf die Bedeutung lokaler Aushandlungsprozesse und Diskurse hin, die sich trotz unterschiedlicher nationaler Regulierungen und Rahmenbedingungen in vergleichbarer Weise entwickeln können. Dadurch unterstreicht dieser Beitrag die Bedeutung von länderübergreifenden Lokalstudien und die generelle Bedeutung der lokalen Ebene in der vergleichenden Implementierungsforschung.

Where does youth mobility stand in the complex picture of diverse types of inequalities that affect youth and the content of their mobilities? In the light of this question, with this special issue, we look at the hindering and fostering factors in the mobility of young people, and examine different facets of mobility (social networks, transnational activities, agency, gender, household decisions) in different types of mobility (considering mobility for volunteering, vocational education and training, higher education including both credit and degree mobility, and employment). The analysis presented in the papers of this special issue will enable the identification of inequalities accompanying youth mobility at different levels. The articles in this issue reveal that when it comes to possibilities for becoming mobile, many other types of inequalities apart from the solely economic ones must be considered (Oxfam, 2016, p. 7; Hargittai and Hinnant 2008), including legal, political, social, moral inequalities (White, 2007) together with gender inequality. This special issue on “Inequalities and Youth Mobilities in Europe from Comparative Perspectives” serves the purpose of revealing how diverse types of inequalities can exist within seemingly equal societies.

In the course of the neoliberalization of the economy, the mobility of capital and goods along international value chains, and the interregional and international mobility of labour, have played increasingly prominent roles. As part of this trend, vocational education training (VET) mobility has become an important form of youth mobility, particularly considering its imaginative and concrete links to labour mobility. The prevalence of VET mobility between different labour markets and VET regions is, to a major degree, dependent on the distances and different economic profiles of the regions involved, and as discussed in previous chapters, personal dreams and aspirations also create imperatives to move abroad. Institutional (cultural and legal) differences also play a decisive role in the intensity of interregional and international VET mobility. But whereas there is a positive relationship between interregional economic and demographic differences in labour market regions and mobility, the relationships between spatial distances, and institutional/cultural differences of labour market regions and mobility are more negative. Therefore, the highest level of interregional VET mobility can be assumed to take place between neighbouring regions whose geographical distances as well as institutional and cultural differences are small, and demographic and economic differences are at the same time large.

When first established in 1987, the Erasmus programme (rebranded Erasmus+ in 2014) aimed to encourage transnational collaboration between higher education institutions without involving national authorities (Ribeiro 2021). One of its first functions was to enhance cultural integration (Gonzalez et al. 2011), but within a few years the European Commission started to include topics such as social and economic inclusion, which led to a diversification of its programmes (Cairns 2017), culminating in Erasmus+ encompassing areas such as volunteering, entrepreneurship and training (European Commission 2018: 3). The objective of this chapter is to look at this expanded range of opportunities for internationalized learning, focusing on experiences in Norway, Romania and Luxembourg, and a process we have called ‘Erasmus-ization.’ In practice, this can take many forms. For example, the interviews from Romania describe an enculturation to European values and global citizenship (Deardorff 2006), and experiential learning (Kolb 2014). In the case of Norway, a broadening of opportunity structures and an elongated transition to employment is found, and for young people who move to Luxembourg the future after Erasmus+ and the intrinsic value of exchanges can manifest many years after the experience. We therefore have a diversification of meaning, as well as a broadening of programmatic scope.

International audience

For a decade now, borders in Europe have been back on the political agenda. Border research has responded and is breaking new ground in thinking about and exploring borders. This book follows this development and strengthens a perspective that is interested in life realities and that focuses on everyday cultural experiences of borders. The authors reconstruct such experiences in the context of different forms of migration and mobility as well as language contact situations and are sensitive to the freedom of the participants. In this way, they empirically identify everyday cultural usage or appropriation strategies of borders as vastly different experiences of borders. The readers of this volume will gain insights into current developments in border research and liefe realities in Europe where borders are (made) relevant. With contributions by Christian Wille, Birte Nienaber, Carsten Yndigegn, Isabelle Pigeron-Piroth, Rachid Belkacem, Ursula Roos, Elisabeth Boesen, Ariela House, Ignacy Jóźwiak, Corinne Martin, Erika Kalocsányiová, Xosé-Afonso Álvarez, Konstanze Jungbluth, Florian Dost, Nicole Richter, Dominik Gerst

Youth unemployment is a challenge in many European countries – especially since the financial crises. Young people face difficulties in the transition from education into employment. This article focuses on young mobile Europeans from six countries (Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Norway, Romania and Spain). The research question is whether and to which extent international mobility has an impact on employability and therefore reduces youth unemployment. By using a cluster analysis of personal adaptability, social and human capital and career identity, the importance of mobility experiences for employability is analysed in a recent dataset of 5,272 young (formerly) mobile respondents. Youth mobility is established as a strong characteristic for the employability cluster. Mobility is however not the long-term aim of most of the mobile young people, since most of the mobiles choose to return to their home countries after one or more stays abroad.

The idea of a “Europe without borders” has been contested for the last decade and is increasingly overshadowed by rebordering phenomena. This development has sparked debates within border studies on how borders should be thought of and investigated. The introductory article deals with this and reconstructs the formation and differentiation of the bordering approach. Furthermore, the concept of border experiences is determined as an investigative perspective that is interested in everyday cultural arenas of bordering processes. It puts the agency of ‘border(lands) residents’ in the center and provides insights into everyday cultural border (re)productions.With this in mind, we will present the book articles in the final section.

Following the terrorist attacks in Paris (November 2015) and Brussels (March 2016), several EU Member States have decided to re-establish border controls or to build walls inside the Schengen Area. Although these decisions are temporary and legally framed by the Schengen code, their extent disrupts the free movement within the Schengen Area, in particular in border areas. While lawyers and economists have analyzed the impacts of this situation, the spatial perspective has remained rather neglected. This exploratory contribution aims to address this gap in the literature by outlining the spatial significance of reintroduced controls for border areas inside the Schengen Area. This contribution firstly undertakes a literature review of the different conceptual tools at hand. These are then compared with a set of exploratory empirical materials. The article focuses more precisely on the Greater Region where France and Germany have reintroduced border controls, thus disrupting in particular daily cross-border flows with Luxembourg and Belgium. The analysis demonstrates that the border acts as a filter, disrupting cross-border flows and cooperation. Also, it sheds some light on the important role played by the ideational perception of the border for practitioners and decision-makers. This contribution concludes by suggesting several paths for a future research agenda.

Nearly 15 years after the Rio Conference and 10 years after the Lucerne Declaration on Geographical Education for Sustainable Development we are interested to what extent the goals of this declarat...

Even though intra-European youth mobility is valued as a boost for personal and professional development, few opt for it. While obstacles preventing young people to become mobile have been discussed broadly, less attention has been paid to the obstacles for the youth who are already on the move. We offer this rare perspective in regard to intra-European mobility. We focus on youth in four types: pupil mobility, vocational (education and training) mobility, higher education student (degree and credit) mobility and employment mobility, in six countries: Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Norway, Romania and Spain. Our analysis, based on qualitative (140 interviews) and quantitative (N=1.682) data, reveals that the perceived obstacles vary between the mobility types, with the greatest divergence between the educational and work-related mobilities. Obstacles such as lack of financial resources and guidance, the perceived incompatibility of institutional regulations within Europe, are shared by all mobile youth.

European youth mobility seems to be fostering Europe’s unequal pace of integration, which sees certain countries benefit at the expense of others (Ohmacht et al., 2009; van Mol & Timmerman, 2014). Using a comparative approach, the paper aims to relate a macro-level country-typology focussing on human capital with individual mobility-motivations on the micro-level. Our methodological approach is based on a secondary macro-data analysis and analyses of mobility-motivations of young people (micro-data) deriving from qualitative (N=152) and quantitative data (N=5,499) collected in six European countries. In order to examine correspondence between macro-conditions and micro-aspects, we relate information on mobility-motivations to the country-typology by allocating mobile youth to the respective types of their home country. The results show that the country-types compose different opportunity structures, which are reflected in individual motivations. Accordingly, different country-types can be seen as an example of the heterogeneity and inequality of European social and territorial mobility frames.

Grenzen sind in der Planungspraxis vielfaltig vorzufinden. Vor allem nationale Grenzen definieren das Territorium, in welchen Planungsinstitutionen und -kulturen verankert sind und ihre Planungsbefugnisse gelten. Im Rahmen der europaischen Integration gibt es zwar verschiedene Instrumentarien einer grenzubergreifenden Raumplanung, da jedoch die Europaische Union keine Raumplanungskompetenz besitzt, sind diese stets im Kontext nationaler Raumplanungsgesetze und -kulturen zu verstehen. Der Beitrag zeigt, welche Masnahmen die Europaische Union getroffen hat (z. B. INTERREG, Territoriale Agenda 2007 und 2020, makroregionale Strategien), um nationalen Grenzen in der Raumplanung weniger Gewicht zu geben und die territoriale Kohasion zu fordern. Gleichzeitig zeigt sich aber auch die Definitionsmacht nationaler Grenzen in diesem Kompetenzfeld.

Landnutzungssysteme und die Vielfalt der Biodiversität lassen sich in Deutschland anhand des Netzes von Großschutzgebieten untersuchen. Im vorliegenden Schwerpunktheft stehen Natur- und Nationalparke sowie Biosphärenreservate im Fokus, die sich in unterschiedlicher Weise mit Flächenkonkurrenzen und Akzeptanzproblemen auseinandersetzen müssen. Der Arbeitskreis „Biodiversität und nachhaltige Landnutzung in Großschutzgebieten“ der Akademie für Raumforschung und Landesplanung (ARL) hat sich mit dieser Thematik befasst. Der vorliegende Beitrag zeigt dabei die Forschungsfragen auf, die in den nachfolgenden Beiträgen dieses Heftes debattiert werden. Dazu gehört, welchen Einfluss unterschiedliche Landnutzungssysteme auf die Beschaffenheit von Ökosystemleistungen haben, wie die Großschutzgebietstypen hinsichtlich ihres jeweiligen Beitrages zu Erhalt und Entwicklung von Biodiversität zu bewerten sind, welche Rolle speziell dem Wald und dessen Bewirtschaftung im Hinblick auf Biodiversität und nachhaltige Landnutzung zukommt und welche Konfliktmuster durch Raumnutzungskonkurrenzen bestehen. Untersucht werden auch konkrete Governance-Ansätze in Großschutzgebieten vor dem Hintergrund von Flächenkonkurrenzen und es wird der Frage nachgegangen, wie in Großschutzgebieten gewonnene Erfahrungen auf die Gesamtfläche übertragen werden können. Darüber hinaus liefert dieser Beitrag die grundlegenden Definitionen zum Thema des Heftes. Schließlich werden aus unterschiedlicher fachlicher Perspektive Forderungen an politische und planerische Akteure gestellt, die eine nachhaltige Entwicklung von Großschutzgebieten in Deutschland unterstützen sollen. Eine stringente Stärkung des Stellenwertes von Großschutzgebieten auf Bundesebene mit entsprechenden administrativen Strukturen steht hier ebenso im Fokus wie die Forderung nach einer stärkeren Qualitätssicherung und -entwicklung der Großschutzgebiete. Auch das Spannungsfeld zwischen der Notwendigkeit des stärkeren Prozessschutzes und der Intensivierung der Landwirtschaft im Zuge der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik der EU wird in den Forderungen aufgegriffen. Land-use systems and biodiversity in Germany can be investigated using the network of protected areas. This issue focuses on nature parks, national parks and biosphere reserves that are confronted with various problems related to competition for land and acceptance. The working group “Biodiversity and sustainable land use in protected areas” of the Academy for Spatial Research and Planning (ARL) has tackled this topic. This paper reviews the research questions that are debated in this special issue of “Raumforschung und Raumordnung”. These questions include the influence of different land-use systems on the state of ecosystem services, how the different types of protected areas should be evaluated in terms of their individual contributions to the conservation and development of biodiversity, the role played specifically by woods and forestry management with regard to biodiversity and sustainable land use, and the patterns of conflict that exist due to competing land uses. Attention is also paid to concrete governance approaches in protected areas against the background of competition for land and the question of how experience gained in protected areas can be transferred to ‚normal‘ landscapes. The paper also provides basic definitions relevant to the topic. Finally, from the perspective of various disciplines, the working group calls for policy and planning actors to support the sustainable development of protected areas in Germany. Here the focus is not only on a stringent strengthening of the status of protected areas on the federal level combined with appropriate administrative structures, but also on promoting improved quality assurance and quality development of the protected areas. Of further relevance to these calls for action is the field of tension between the necessity for strengthened process protection and the intensification of agriculture in the context of EU Common Agricultural Policy.

International migrants sometimes decide to live in rural instead of in urban areas. These migrants can be clustered into different groups, e.g. amenity migrants, cross-border migrants, asylum seekers, training migrants and working migrants (seasonal and permanent). In rural areas in Germany, for example, in 2010 11.1 % of the population had a migratory background. In the German census for 2011, people with a migratory background include “all immigrant and nonimmigrant foreigners, all German citizens who immigrated after 1955 into the current territory of the Federal Republic of Germany and those Germans with at least one parent who immigrated into the current territory of the Federal Republic of Germany after 1955” (translated from the text from the Statistisches Bundesamt, Zensus 2011: Ausgewahlte Ergebnisse. Wiesbaden, 2013b, p. 26) (Statistisches Bundesamt, Bevolkerung und Erwerbstatigkeit. Bevokerung mit Migrationshintergrund – Ergebnisse des Mikrozensus 2010. Fachserie 1 Reihe 2.2. Wiesbaden, 2011). Even though this phenomenon of international migrants moving into rural instead of urban areas exists, it has long been neglected by researchers.

All over the world, UNESCO biosphere reserves are designated in order to protect regionally distinctive landscapes. This designation represents a significant up-valuation of nature reserves and landscape conservation areas, forests and other mostly rural landscapes. In cases where biosphere reserves include urban areas, additional objectives are established such as the development of urban-rural-relationships. The Biosphere Reserve Bliesgau which is a sustainable model region responds to this challenge. Located in a rural part of Saarland, the biosphere Bliesgau is still facing further challenges which are connected to the designation as a UNESCO biosphere reserve. This designation entails many obligations that are conditions and restrictions for the actors on the one hand and that provide opportunities for key personalities to make progress in achieving their aims concerning nature conservation on the other hand. Hence, not only prospects but potential for conflict emerged which complicates regional development in rural Saarland. A primary survey in the biosphere reserve allowed for the identification of the presented conflicts. Weltweit werden UNESCO- Biosphärenreservate zum Schutz typischer Landschaften ausgewiesen. Diese Auszeichnung stellt eine enorme Aufwertung für Naturschutz- und Landschaftsschutzgebiete, Wälder und andere zumeist ländliche Landschaften dar. Schließen Biosphärenreservate urbane Gebiete ein, so werden ihnen zusätzliche Ziele, wie Entwicklung von Land-Stadt-Beziehungen gesetzt. Dieser Aufgabe stellt sich das Biosphärenreservat Bliesgau, das eine Modellregion nachhaltigen Wirtschaftens ist. Die im ländlichen Saarland gelegene Biosphäre Bliesgau steht dennoch ebenfalls vor weiteren Herausforderungen, die mit der Anerkennung als UNESCO- Biosphärenreservat zusammenhängen. Diese Anerkennung ist mit vielen Verpflichtungen verbunden, die einerseits Auflagen und Einschränkungen für einige Akteure bedeuten und andererseits Möglichkeiten für andere Schlüsselpersonen bieten, ihren Zielen im Bezug auf den Naturschutz näher zu kommen. Somit entstanden nicht nur Chancen für die Naturschutzgebiete, sondern auch Konfliktpotential, das die regionale Entwicklung im ländlichen Saarland erschwert. Eine primäre Erhebung im Biosphärenreservat ermöglichte die Ermittlung der präsentierten Konflikte.

Against the background of the enlargement of the European Union, Ireland is often mentioned as a key example for the Central and Eastern European countries of a successful European integration process. Thereby, the development of the complete Republic of Ireland since the EU accession in 1973 is analyzed. If you survey separately the economic and social development of urban and rural regions, it emerges that the rural regions could hardly participate in the economic success of Ireland and that disparities have increased. Many farmers are depended on public welfare to make a living, as the Irish living costs have increased during the last years. Consequently today about one third of the Irish households live - in spite of the economic success of the Celtic Tiger - under the relative poverty line. Against the background of this depletion process, the question comes up whether Ireland can act as a paradigm for the European integration process of Poland. Looking at the initial situation of Ireland in 1973 and the current situation in Poland, several parallels exist, however, also strong distinctions. While major similarities can be determined with the agricultural structures as well as with the social value system, developments in Poland are still subject to the not yet completed transformation process from a socialistic to a democratic and capitalistic system. Moreover, the different size and amount of population of these two countries must be considered regarding the European integration process. On the basis of two rural regions as examples -Powiat Zlotow in Northwestern Poland and County Mayo in Western Ireland – rural development shall be presented and compared at the time of EU accession as well as today. Concluding perspectives of the transferability on the regional level shall be pointed out.

What is the SaarLorLux Greater Region? Is it one or more realities of life? One or more political constructions? Or: Is the SaarLorLux Greater Region perhaps something completely different? These are questions that are investigated in this part.

Die Transformation landlicher Raume im westlichen Europa ist eng verbunden mit der europaischen Integration – und dabei vor allem mit der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik – sowie dem demographischen und sozialen Wandel, deren Richtlinien und Auswirkungen die Gesellschaft im landlichen Raum stark gepragt hat. Dies hat bereits seit den fruhen 1950er Jahren Auswirkungen auf die Entwicklungen in westdeutschen landlichen Regionen, wahrend in den ostdeutschen Regionen zunachst auf Grundlage der Kollektivierung und der sozialistischen Planwirtschaft andere Voraussetzungen existierten, auf die aber in diesem Kapitel nicht naher eingegangen werden soll.

This paper brings together different theoretical perspectives to propose an evaluation framework for policies which have the explicit aim to foster communities' involvement in the management of their natural environment in the context of sustainable rural development, such as the EU LEADER programme, Australia's Caring for Our Country, and UNESCO Biosphere Reserves. Previous policy evaluations have over-simplified the complex social-ecological systems on which these policies are intended to act, have lacked specification of the policy level they address and were predicated on the assumption that policies can be designed to produce predictable outcomes. Based on a concept of ‘complex realities’ we developed a framework to guide the evaluation of policy effectiveness in social-ecological systems. This comprehensive framework provides the conceptual and theoretical context in which individual evaluation exercises for policy review and future programme design can be embedded. It goes beyond existing frameworks by allowing the identification of factors that explain how and why a policy tool was effective. It provides a structure within which datasets from different sources, relevant stakeholders and relationships can be identified and analysed in a multi-level and multi-scale context. However, we emphasise that policy makers and evaluators' mindsets would have to change to accept uncertainty and the validity of various stakeholders' perceptions and evaluations.

National borders inside the European Union are open contact zones of transnational everyday lives. The Schengen Agreement ensures the free movement of EU citizens leading to new forms of international migration and illustrating the European integration process on the local level. Therefore, migrants move to the neighbouring country to live or work there. Cross-border residential property and labour markets develop meaning the transnationalisation of everyday lives between neighbouring countries. With the case study region of the municipality of Perl in the German federal state of Saarland and the joined municipality Amt Löcknitz-Penkun in the German federal state of Mecklenburg- Western Pomerania the following article deals with these cross-border everyday lives. On the one side of the national state borders there is a booming region (Luxembourg or Szczecin) and on the other side there is a structural weak rural German region. This substantially influences these processes. Both case study regions show dealings with these cross-border phenomena and spatial implications deriving from this.

Raising collective agency is key to successful place-based development approaches. Existing policy arrangements have, however, been criticised, suggesting a need to effectuate more collaborative modes of governance. This paper shall contribute to a better understanding of how public support can best be arranged to raise collective agency for a more collaborative mode of governance in rural areas. The paper elaborates on findings of empirical investigations conducted within the EU FP7 project DERREG. It will be shown that differences in effectuating more collaborative modes of governance can partly be ascribed to different political dynamics, economic and demographic situations as well as the presence of a shared sense of place. To raise collective agency effectively requires a joint reconsideration and restructuring of the division of roles and tasks, including those of public administration. This can be supported by facilitating joint reflexivity among development actors and giving room for collaborative leadership and operational flexibility within policy arrangements.

Die raumliche Perspektive der Europaischen Union wird im vorliegenden Artikel reflektiert, indem zunachst an drei aktuelle Debatten an der Schnittstelle zwischen Politischer Geographie und Europarecht angeknupft wird: Erstens wird seit den 1990er Jahren uber eine mogliche Kompetenz der europaischen Ebene im Bereich der Raumplanung diskutiert, wobei die Rolle des Subsidiaritatsprinzips strittig ist. Zweitens knupft die Debatte um die Erweiterungsmoglichkeiten der EU an die Finalitatsdebatte an. Drittens wird diskutiert, ob das Territorialitatsprinzip, das auf nationalstaatlicher Ebene masgeblich ist, auch auf europaischer Ebene entsprechend Anwendung zu finden hat. In diese sehr politische Debatte werden Argumente eingefuhrt, die auf einer Systematisierung der konzeptionellen Debatte fusen, und dies ausgehend vom Territorialitatsbegriff, der am grundlegendsten ist. In einem ersten Schritt wird hierbei eine Differenzierung von analytischen und normativen Begriffselementen vorgenommen. In einem zweiten Schritt wird eine Kategorisierung der konzeptionellen Ansatze vorgeschlagen, die von territorialen, moderat relationalen und radikal relationalen Perspektiven ausgeht. In einem letzten Schritt wird diese Systematik in Beziehung gesetzt zu den Konzepten der Subsidiaritat und Finalitat.

Multifunctionality of rural areas in Europe has become an important aspect of rural development in the last years. An important instrument to ameliorate the multifunctionality is diversification of farm income. As various forms of farm income diversification have been developed throughout Europe, the paper will survey the effectiveness of undertaken measures. First the issue of farm diversification will be argued theoretically. Then case studies from Saarland, Germany, and from Slovenia will analyse the importance of diversification for rural areas. A comparison of the two regions will reveal the chances and risks of diversification in a comparable new and old EU member state.

International labour migration is one of the main challenges in the 21st century for rural areas within Europe. So far, rural areas have not been in the focus of research. The project DERREG, financed by EU FP7, has investigated this phenomenon. Qualitative interviews with international labour migrants have been carried out in the rural border area of Merzig-Wadern, Saarland in the South-West of Germany. The results of these interviews on motivation, working situation, professional experience, family background, social networks, future plans, satisfaction and suggestions of improvements regarding the situation of migrants show heterogeneity, in comparison with urban migrants. However, it can be concluded that the international labour migrants are a benefit to communities in rural areas if they are well integrated. Internationale Arbeitsmigration ist eine der Hauptherausforderungen des 21. Jahrhunderts auch für ländliche Räume in Europa. Bisher waren ländlichen Räume nicht im Fokus der Forschung. Das Projekt DERREG, finanziert durch das 7. EU FRP, untersucht dieses Phänomen. Qualitative Interviews mit internationalen Arbeitsmigranten wurden im ländlichen Raum Merzig-Waderns im Saarland, Deutschland geführt. Die Ergebnisse der Interviews über Motivation, Arbeitssituation, Berufserfahrung, familiäre Situation, soziale Netzwerke, Zukunftspläne, Zufriedenheit und Verbesserungsvorschläge zur Situation der Migranten zeigen Unterschiede, auch zu städtischen Migranten. Es kann gefolgert werden, dass internationale Arbeitsmigranten einen Mehrwert für ländliche Gemeinschaften darstellen, wenn sie gut integriert sind.

Auslandserfahrungen sind nicht nur eine Möglichkeit, auf kulturelle Entdeckungsreise zu gehen. Sie gelten auch als Chance für junge Menschen, zu lernen und sich persönlich und beruflich weiterzuentwickeln. Entsprechend wird Jugendmobilität in der Jugendarbeit große Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt. Auch die Länder, die die Jugendlichen entsenden oder aufnehmen, können dabei profitieren – aber auf unterschiedliche Weise. Zu welchem Zweck gehen junge Menschen ins Ausland? Was motiviert sie dabei? Welche Barrieren müssen sie dafür überwinden? Welche Rolle spielt der familiäre Bildungshintergrund der Jugendlichen? Diese Fragen werden mit Fokus auf länderspezifische Unterschiede auf der Datenbasis des europäischen Forschungsprojekts MOVE untersucht, in das Wissenschaftler(innen) aus sechs europäischen Ländern involviert waren. Die Grundlage bildet zunächst eine Ländertypologie, die Humankapitalbewegungen durch Auslandsaufenthalte abbildet, welche je nach Mobilitätsfeld eher dem Sende- oder Empfängerland zugutekommen. Sie weist europäische Länder vier Typen zu: Mobilitätsförderern, Mobilitätsverlierern, Mobilitätsgewinnern und Mobilitätsverwertern. Besonders erstere und letztere sind gut für eine kontrastierende, ländervergleichende Betrachtung geeignet. Mobilitätsförderer sind Länder, deren junge Menschen im europäischen Ausland arbeiten, die aber selbst kein wichtiges Zielland für europäische Jugendliche sind (z.B. Ungarn und Rumänien). Mobilitätsverwerter sind attraktive Zielländer sowohl für kurz- als auch langfristige Mobilitäten und weisen damit bezüglich der Generierung und Verwertung von Humankapital ein ausgeglichenes Konto auf (z.B. Norwegen, Luxemburg und Deutschland). In einem kontrastierenden Vergleich werden Motivationen und Barrieren für Auslandsaufenthalte im Zusammenhang mit dem Bildungshintergrund junger Menschen aus Mobilitätsförder- und Mobilitätsverwerterländern analysiert. Hierfür werden die Individualdaten eines Onlinesurveys mit 18-29-Jährigen (N=4.719) aus Deutschland, Luxemburg, Norwegen, Ungarn und Rumänien den beiden Ländertypen zugeordnet und verglichen.

There is a fantastic word in German: Aufheben. How this word captures the essence of dialectical social space was discovered by Schmid (2007), and his observation is worth repeating here:At the cor...

MOVE (Mapping mobility - pathways, institutions and structural effects of youth mobility in Europe) dealt with intra-European mobility (May 2015 - April 2018). The text sets out recommendations for action on youth mobility.