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This thesis explores an internal EU border in Northern Europe during a ‘crisis’ scenario. In the aftermath of the Syrian Civil War, during 2015 Sweden received 160,000 applications for asylum, the third highest total number in Europe. Consequently, Sweden introduced three forms of border controls to restrict numbers, marking a significant shift in Swedish asylum policy. This thesis engages with the notion of ‘political moments’ concerning how occasions of heightened visibilities could be appropriated and brought into the political milieu in Sweden and Denmark during 2015-2016 and subsequently used in the operations of borderwork by state and non-state actors. Borderwork is understood in this thesis in a Rumfordian manner, where state and non-state actors can contribute to actions of bordering and debordering. The thesis analyses Sweden’s border controls, grounded in particular contextualities and operating within a specific EU legal framework. This thesis draws on semi-structured interviews with 53 individuals primarily from the state and civil society in both countries. Complexities within and between civil society and the state concerning borderwork are shown as being interpenetrating, and the state’s pervasive extension is explored through ‘the Snake’ and Posthusplatsen. Emotion as a political resource (which can be appealed to, framed and (re)produced to shape discourses) is analysed and seen vis-à-vis the political left and right as a mobilising force in both bordering and debordering. Finally, and as part of this, the notion of mourning is explored concerning the evocative question: Is this Sweden?

China’s pre-pandemic national-level planning advocated a combination of culture and tourism to advance growth in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) mega-region. Culture is seen as increasing regional cohesion, with multi-destination travel products connecting subregions and cities. This paper examines perceptions of progress towards a coherent GBA cultural identity and its implications for tourism. We examine tourism stakeholder perceptions of the GBA, assess the prospects for the development of collective identities in the region and assess the prospects for implementation of the GBA brand. Surveys and interviews with stakeholders indicate that the prevalent top-down planning approach has so far generated limited regional coherence and may also be limiting bottom-up placemaking initiatives. Debordering between Hong Kong, Macao and the mainland cities offers opportunities for tourism development, but these have so far been limited, also because of intensifying competition between mainland GBA cities in international markets, challenging the implementation of an umbrella brand. Regional stakeholders so far show little buy-in to the overarching ‘quality living circle’ concept for the GBA. New governance structures may be to support the development of a coherent regional identity and generate place leadership to successfully combine top-down and bottom-up placemaking initiatives.

Die Auffassung, dass Grenzen aus sozialer Praxis hervorgehen und soziale Praxis hervorbringen, hat in den letzten Jahrzehnten für eine Reihe an Ansätzen und Begriffen gesorgt. Der Beitrag versucht diese zu systematisieren und stellt einen processual shift, multiplicity shift und complexitiy shift vor. Diese Trends beschreiben verschiedene analytische Schwerpunktsetzungen und eine zunehmend differenziertere Beschäftigung mit Grenzen. Abschließend wird auf die noch unzureichend bestimmte Kategorie der sozialen Praxis und auf das Potential der Praxistheorien für die Grenzforschung eingegangen.

Staying within the debate, which links border studies and migration studies, my purpose is to conceptualise a focus that connects two heuristic approaches: ontological security and urban resilience. I will follow the rationale path that the normative foundation of resilience is ontological security. I will state that at the city level the concern on the “security of the self” driving resilience operates at two levels: at the social level, the city council’s resilience strategy seeks to maintain cohesion-making; at the individual level, the city council seeks to provide migrants with the minimum inclusive threshold of “the right to have rights” This paper is the outcome of an exploratory theoretical-empirical research. First, I introduce the theoretical background linking ontological security and debordering processes at the city scale. Then, the conceptual lens linking ontological security and resilience strategies will be justified. Thirdly, the Barcelona debordering processes’ case study will be examined with a methodological section leading the presentation of findings. Finally, concluding remarks will draw some paths for further comparative research.

La frontera entre Alemanya i Polònia representa un dels exemples més interessants de dinàmica política i transformació econòmica i social que es poden observar en l’Europa posterior a la Guerra Freda, i és un exemple reeixit d’estreta cooperació. Les lògiques desfronteritzadores en curs poden detectar-se aquí; tanmateix, les formes i els ritmes revelen un estancament i, fins i tot, regressió en determinats sectors. S’argumenta que la intensificació de la cooperació transfronterera, després del col·lapse dels règims comunistes en aquesta part d’Europa, va ser el resultat d’un conjunt d’interaccions a escala europea, nacional i local. En aquell moment, els objectius principals eren relativament convergents, la qual cosa va contribuir a una ràpida desfronterització. No obstant això, amb el temps, aquests objectius van començar a divergir entre els diferents nivells. Aquest procés s’ha contextualitzat en el marc de les simetries i asimetries existents en la frontera, que moltes vegades han donat com a resultat tendències refronteritzadores., The border between Germany and Poland represents one of the most interesting examples of dynamic political, economic and social transformation one can observe in post-Cold War Europe, being a very successful example of close cooperation. Ongoing debordering logics can be noticed there, but their forms and pace also reveal stagnation, or even regress in some sectors. It is claimed that the dynamic intensification of cross-border cooperation there after the collapse of the communist regimes in this part of Europe resulted from a complex set of interactions on the European, national and local levels. The key objectives there were relatively convergent which contributed to rapid debordering. They started, however, to diverge over time, differently on each of the levels. This process was contextualized in the symmetries and asymmetries existing on the border, which in many cases resulted in rebordering tendencies., La frontera entre Alemania y Polonia representa uno de los ejemplos más interesantes de dinámica política y transformación económica y social que pueden observarse en la Europa posterior a la Guerra Fría, y es un exitoso ejemplo de una estrecha cooperación. Las lógicas desfronterizadoras en curso pueden detectarse aquí; no obstante, sus formas y ritmos también revelan un estancamiento e, incluso, regresión en determinados sectores. Se argumenta que la intensificación de la cooperación transfronteriza, después del colapso de los regímenes comunistas en esta parte de Europa, fue el resultado de un conjunto de interacciones a escala europea, nacional y local. En ese momento, los objetivos principales eran relativamente convergentes, lo que contribuyó a una rápida desfronterización. Sin embargo, con el tiempo, dichos objetivos empezaron a divergir entre los diferentes niveles. Este proceso ha sido contextualizado en el marco de las simetrías y asimetrías existentes en la frontera, que en muchos casos han dado como resultado tendencias refronterizadoras., La frontière entre l’Allemagne et la Pologne représente l’un des exemples les plus intéressants de dynamique politique, et de transformation économique et sociale, devenant ainsi un exemple d’une coopération étroite réussie. Les logiques de défrontérisation actuelles sont ici détectables, cependant, leurs formes et leur rythme révèlent aussi une stagnation, et même une régression, dans certains secteurs. Nous soutenons que l’intensification de la coopération transfrontalière qui a eu lieu après l’effondrement des régimes communistes dans cette partie de l’Europe était le résultat d’un ensemble d’interactions au niveau européen, national et local. A cette époque-là, les principaux objectifs étaient relativement convergents, ce qui a aidé à une défrontérisation rapide. Néanmoins, au cours du temps, ces objectifs ont commencé à diverger entre les différents niveaux. Ce processus a été contextualisé dans le cadre des symétries et des asymétries existantes à la frontière, qui dans de nombreux cas ont abouti à des tendances de refrontérisation.

The modern border concept emerges from the Westphalian Peace. The sovereignty of the State over a territory is delimited by line of political division with territorial expression, which was accepted as indisputable until a few decades ago. Currently, the concept of state suffers two kinds of pressure. On the one hand, we are witnessing a process of affirmation of borders and their shield against the other (s) State (s) or migrations; on the other hand, an ongoing debordering process led both by the European Union and Organizations that have been formed because of economic objectives. Regardless of a bigger or smaller porosity, the border has always been a place for observing and meeting one another. After long periods of time, this interaction leads to the creation of hybrid cultures and complicities are generated by the trade/shopping or other social or political activities. The study of these phenomena has a long tradition in the geographical and sociological literature; however, from the end of the twentieth century, several authors, with different perspectives - structuralist, humanist or culturalist – have focused on the way we see ourselves and evaluate the other, the different one, who is our neighbor but who lives on the other side of the barrier. The Portugal / Spain border, the longest in Europe, has been the target of many works. Sidaway, Amante or Iva Pires have tried to evaluate the feeling of Raianos facing each other from socio-economic data or interviews. In this work, we assess the motivations for the commuting movement of borderer populations (from 400 surveys), essentially focused on cross-border shopping. We conducted 34 interviews with Portuguese and Spanish of a wide range of professions to comprehend the image we build of our neighbors. If trade and leisure/travel are responsible for the movements, the image that the Spanish form of us, Portuguese people, is much more flattering than the reverse. In a moment of rapprochement between populations, due to the elimination of barriers, knowledge of the image that people build of the other also becomes an extremely assertive and an acutely planning tool.

En este artículo se analiza la resistencia a la refronterización, es decir al proceso de endurecimiento de los regímenes fronterizos por parte de los Estados-nación. En las regiones fronterizas, la resistencia se ha producido mediante operaciones en las que se movilizan los actores y recursos locales de ambos lados de un límite internacional, así como los propios espacios y lugares (trans)fronterizos y las distintas representaciones espaciales. Mediante una metodología cualitativa se analizan dos operaciones de resistencia a la refronterización de Estados Unidos en la frontera México–Texas. Ambas se dan en y con los puentes internacionales (un símbolo de la desfronterización) por medio de la representación de una unidad transfronteriza y del rechazo al muro fronterizo, basándose en un ideal de igualdad entre las poblaciones de ambos lados de la frontera. Sin embargo, ambas operaciones también hacen visible la frontera y refuerzan la diferenciación territorial entre ambos estados-nación. This article analyses the resistance to rebordering, as a process by which Nation-states harden their border regimes. In border regions, resistance has been conducted through operations in which local actors and resources from both sides of an international boundary are mobilized, as well as (cross-)border spaces and places, and the different spatial representations. Two resistance operations to the United States rebordering at the Texas-Mexico border have been analyzed through a qualitative methodology. Both took place on and with the international bridges (a debordering symbol) using a representation of a cross-border unity, and of the rejection of the border fence / wall. They are based on an ideal of equality between the communities from both sides of the border. Nevertheless, these operations also make the border visible, and reinforce territorial differentiation between both State-nations. 77-88

Las prácticas fronterizas de la Unión Europea tienen que comprenderse en el contexto general de la construcción europea aplicada desde los años cincuenta según el principio European Peace by Open Borders. El artículo aborda sucesivamente los principales aspectos de las prácticas fronterizas de la Union Europea, es decir, la eliminación de los obstáculos físicos en las fronteras interiores, la cooperación transfronteriza, la ordenación y la gobernanza fronterizas. Algunas observaciones son dedicadas a las Eurorregiones y al Espacio de Schengen. La cuestión de las fronteras exteriores de la Unión Europea pone de relieve el dilema de fronterización-refronterización. Las fronteras de la Unión Europea necesitan una re-evaluacion y una re-escritura geográcas. The EU’s border experiences have to be understood within the general context of the European construction at work since the 1950s according to the principle European Peace by Open Borders. The paper succesively scrutinizes the key aspects of the EU’s border issues, i.e. erasing the physical obstacles at the inner borders, cross-border cooperation, border planning and governance. Some analyzes are devoted to the Euroregions and the Schengen Area. The problem of the EU’s outer border highlights the debordering-rebordering dilemma. The EU’s borders need a geographical reevaluation and rewriting. Les pratiques frontalières de l’Union Européenne doivent de comprende dans le contexte général de la construcción européene à l’oeuvre depuis les années 1950 selon le príncipe European Peace by Open Bordes. L’article aborde successivament les principaux aspects des practiques frontalières de l’Union Européenne: gommage des obstacles physiques frontalières coopération transfrontalière, aménagement et gouvernance transfrontaliers. Des analyses son consacrées aux Eurorégions et à l’Espace Schengen. Le probléme des frontières extérieures de l’Union Européenne mer en relief le dilemme défrontérisation-refrontérisation. Les frontières de l’Union Européenne on besoin d’une réévaluation et d’une réécriture gégraphiques 9-19 al.sanguin@orange.fr semestral

Border twin towns are locations of particular symbolic importance for governing projects aimed at the creation of national and international spaces. Local and central authorities have utilised public monuments and other symbols there as a way of «inventing tradition» [15], and narrating about conflict, cooperation and even collaboration legacies. The metaphor of «integration laboratories» [13] makes them perfect places for border (re)negotiation [5]. Referring also to Reinhart Koselleck’s [27] ideas concerning war memorials we argue that monuments represent symbols exhibited in public space: they have a specific function, in hinting something, «which does not exist as a thing or matter immediately perceptible to the senses» [38, p.40]. Moreover, a symbol «tells about some other reality and is the crystallization of a linguistic description » [38, p. 40]. In this way, «materially existing objects are often useful in embodying and presenting abstract ideas, such as unfriendly relations, international socialism or EU integration, as well as strengthening a populace in their convictions toward these ideas» [5, p. 204]. The aim of this paper is to investigate historiographicallypublic space symbolism i.e. monuments, cultural memory and politics in three border twin towns (Narva-Ivangorod, Imatra-Svetogorsk and Kirkenes-Nickel). It will, however, concentrate on the western part of the border. On the basis of these representations the paper aims to discuss broader foreign policy orientations, and in particular those after WWII: being the sites of intensive interactions they reveal a historic legacy of conflict between «Scandinavian space» and Russia. Further, they have recently employed (accordingly) three variants of historic-political (re)interpretations: new economic neighbourhood relations, EU common border and conflictive revival of Swedish historic legacy. Key words: European-Russian border; bordering; de-bordering; border symbols. КОНФЛІКТ І СПІВПРАЦЯ В ГРОМАДСЬКОМУ ПРОСТОРІ. СИМВОЛІЧНЕ ПОГОДЖЕННЯ ІСТОРИЧНОГО І СУЧАСНОГО СКАНДИНАВСЬКО-РОСІЙСЬКОГО КОРДОНУ Прикордонні міста-побратими є такими місцями, що мають неабияку символічність для ключових проектів, що мають на меті створення пам’ятних місць національного і міжнародного значення. Місцеві та центральна влада використовують пам’ятники та інші символи як спосіб «створювати традиції» [15], та розповідати про колись існуючі конфлікт, співробітництво і навіть партнерство. Метафора «Лабораторія інтеграції» [13] робить їх ідеальним місцем для транскордонного діалогу. Посилаючись також на твердження Рейнхарта Козеллека [27] стосовно військових меморіалів ми стверджуємо, що пам'ятники представляють символи виставлені в громадських місцях: вони мають певну функцію, виражаючи певні ідеї, «які не є матеріальними або які не можна одразу осягнути» [38, с. 40]. Більше того, символ «розповідає про іншу реальність і є кристалізацією лінгвістичного опису» [38, с. 40]. Таким чином «матеріальні об’єкти часто втілюють та презентують абстрактні ідеї, такі як недружні відносини, міжнародний соціалізм або євроінтеграцію, а також посилення сприйняття цих ідей населенням» [5, с. 204]. Метою цієї статті є дослідити історіографічно символіку громадських місць, саме пам'ятники, пам'ятки культури і політики в трьох прикордонних містах-побратимах (Нарва-Івангород, Іматра-Святогірськ і Кіркенес-Нікель). Основна увага буде приділена західній частині кордону. На основі цих прикладів в статті висвітлюються ширші зовнішньополітичні орієнтації, зокрема, ті, які існували після Другої світової війни: будучи місцями інтенсивних взаємодій, вони відкривають історичну спадщину конфлікту між «скандинавським простором» та Росією. Крім того, останнім часом вони використовуються (відповідно) у трьох вимірах історико-політичної інтерпретації: нові економічні добросусідські відносини, спільного кордону ЄС і конфліктного відродження шведської історичної спадщина. Ключові слова: Європейсько-російський кордон; граничити; розмежування; прикордонні символи.