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Border security has been high on public-policy agendas in Europe and North America since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and on the headquarters of the US military in Washington, DC. Governments are now confronted with managing secure borders, a policy objective that, in this era of increased free trade and globalization, must compete with intense cross-border flows of people and goods. Border-security policies must enable security personnel to ident...

Border security has been high on public-policy agendas in Europe and North America since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York City and on the headquarters of the American military in Washington DC. Governments are now confronted with managing secure borders, a policy objective that in this era of increased free trade and globalization must compete with intense cross-border flows of people and goods. Border-security policies must enable security personnel to identify, or filter out, dangerous individuals and substances from among the millions of travelers and tons of goods that cross borders daily, particularly in large cross-border urban regions. This book addresses this gap between security needs and an understanding of borders and borderlands. Specifically, the chapters in this volume ask policy-makers to recognize that two fundamental elements define borders and borderlands: first, human activities (the agency and agent power of individual ties and forces spanning a border), and second, the broader social processes that frame individual action, such as market forces, government activities (law, regulations, and policies), and the regional culture and politics of a borderland. Borders emerge as the historically and geographically variable expression of human ties exercised within social structures of varying force and influence, and it is the interplay and interdependence between people's incentives to act and the surrounding structures (i.e. constructed social processes that contain and constrain individual action) that determine the effectiveness of border security policies. This book argues that the nature of borders is to be porous, which is a problem for security policy makers. It shows that when for economic, cultural, or political reasons human activities increase across a border and borderland, governments need to increase cooperation and collaboration with regard to security policies, if only to avoid implementing mismatched security policies.

International audience

International audience; In North America, border studies generally focus on two land boundaries, the Canada-US and the US-Mexico borderlands. Yet, maritime borders become increasingly relevant, notably in the Arctic (Le Mière and Mazo 2013), since using the Northwest passage and exploiting raw materials in Northern polar regions may be soon possible, due to climate change, which incidentally triggers border security issues. Still, the core of border studies in North America can undoubtedly be found on the US-Mexico border. This borderland has contributed to forge an interdisciplinary research cluster that has been institutionalized in numerous academic departments. Also, the US-Mexico borderland has lead to the emergence of a solid interdisciplinary research network, the Association for Borderlands Studies (ABS), born in April 1976 in Tempe, Arizona (Pisani, Reyes and García 2009). The ABS is now a stimulating research venue for North-American and international scholars alike that welcomes varying theoretical and methodological approaches to border studies.Those multiple border perspectives in social sciences are scrutinized by Michèle Lamont and Virga Molnar (2002). They examine four main transversal research agendas: social and collective identity; class, racial and gender inequality; professions, knowledge and science; and communities, national identities and spatial boundaries. The literature on borders and border regions in North America reveals that border regions are zones of transition, that range from fully integrated borderlands to sharply divided border territories, with varying socio-economic landscapes (Martinez 1996). On the Canada-US border, smart borders are increasingly tested and implemented, so that border security measures do not disrupt the flows of people and goods (Sparke 2006). The construction of (less smart) border security apparatus, such as border walls and fences in US- Mexico border regions, can regenerate cultural production and interactions (Amilhat-Szary 2012). The criminalization of migrations in North America is also an acute research object (Dowling and India 2013). Other border policy issues, such as the environment, living standards and human development, are also scrutinized by border scholars (Anderson and Gerber 2007).In this succinct chapter, we will focus on four main sections: first, the history of borders, followed by border conflicts; third, the development of transborder relations and regions; and finally, border and transborder policies.

International audience; In North America, border studies generally focus on two land boundaries, the Canada-US and the US-Mexico borderlands. Yet, maritime borders become increasingly relevant, notably in the Arctic (Le Mière and Mazo 2013), since using the Northwest passage and exploiting raw materials in Northern polar regions may be soon possible, due to climate change, which incidentally triggers border security issues. Still, the core of border studies in North America can undoubtedly be found on the US-Mexico border. This borderland has contributed to forge an interdisciplinary research cluster that has been institutionalized in numerous academic departments. Also, the US-Mexico borderland has lead to the emergence of a solid interdisciplinary research network, the Association for Borderlands Studies (ABS), born in April 1976 in Tempe, Arizona (Pisani, Reyes and García 2009). The ABS is now a stimulating research venue for North-American and international scholars alike that welcomes varying theoretical and methodological approaches to border studies.Those multiple border perspectives in social sciences are scrutinized by Michèle Lamont and Virga Molnar (2002). They examine four main transversal research agendas: social and collective identity; class, racial and gender inequality; professions, knowledge and science; and communities, national identities and spatial boundaries. The literature on borders and border regions in North America reveals that border regions are zones of transition, that range from fully integrated borderlands to sharply divided border territories, with varying socio-economic landscapes (Martinez 1996). On the Canada-US border, smart borders are increasingly tested and implemented, so that border security measures do not disrupt the flows of people and goods (Sparke 2006). The construction of (less smart) border security apparatus, such as border walls and fences in US- Mexico border regions, can regenerate cultural production and interactions (Amilhat-Szary 2012). The criminalization of migrations in North America is also an acute research object (Dowling and India 2013). Other border policy issues, such as the environment, living standards and human development, are also scrutinized by border scholars (Anderson and Gerber 2007).In this succinct chapter, we will focus on four main sections: first, the history of borders, followed by border conflicts; third, the development of transborder relations and regions; and finally, border and transborder policies.

International audience; Holding the Line: Borders in a Global World is a collection of papers, edited by Heather Nicol and Ian Townsend-Gault, which were originally presented at the Permeable Borders and Boundaries Conference in Vancouver (B.C.) in August 1999. This book presents a series of nineteen case studies and conceptual papers organized in eight parts. According to the editors, they “offer different perspectives on the nature of the new seismic forces” at work on and around borders and borderlands as they are transformed by globalization.

Rapport à la Région Alsace, en partenariat avec la Caisse Primaire d'Assurance Maladie de Strasbourg et la Préfecture du Haut-Rhin de Colmar. Sous la direction scientifique de Vincent Dubois et Viviane Serfaty, Groupe de Sociologie Politique Européenne (GSPE)

"Methodological nationalism restricts the focus on transnational migrants in Europe, in particular in the Upper-Rhine border area (France-Germany-Switzerland). Three main limitations can be underlined: to start with, the ignorance of nationalism in contemporary social science research, including in migration and border studies; moreover, the naturalization of the nation- state that contributes to shape numerous social science biases; finally, territorial limitations that constrain research topics (Wimmer and Glick Schiller 2002). To overcome those issues, this research combines three methodological perspectives: first, a socio-historical analysis of transnational migrants in the Rhineland area, in order to comprehend past and contemporary dynamics; second, a socio-political approach that stresses the migrants’ “ways of being” (Glick Schiller 2005), including their activism and rhetoric, e.g. direct observations and interviews in multiple sites; third, a pluri-scalar approach that implies several levels of analysis, e.g. local, regional, cross-border, transnational and supra-national. The analysis of transnational migrants’ public action in the Rhineland Valley suggests a triple hypothesis: those transnational migrants’ activists elaborate a public discourse against a specific political and social stigmatization (Becker [1963] 1997); they also institutionalize and reinforce social movements with highly trained lawyers that defend their interests at the highest European jurisdictional level; they create empirically an original form of transnational quasi-trade unions." [author's abstract]

Soutenue publiquement le 20 juin 2005.; Our study is based on the experiences of two cross-border spaces, the Upper Rhine (France-Germany-Switzerland) and the Mediterranean Euroregion (France-Spain). On this basis, we argue that cross-border cooperation works or seems to work because of its fragility. Our study demonstrates that the vulnerability of actors and policies in the cross-border European field conditions and maintains cross-border cooperation. Three basic features are emphasized: first, cross-border cooperation is a specific public policy, since it implies a territorial invention which lacks enough credibility; moreover, cross-border cooperation is marked by original multi-sectional European Community —but marginal— policies (INTERREG); finally, the current cross-border cycle is characterized by low intensity policies, influenced by dominated policy networks.; Sur la base des expériences de deux espaces transfrontaliers, le Rhin Supérieur (Allemagne-France-Suisse) et l'Eurorégion Méditerranéenne (Espagne-France), nous émettons l'hypothèse centrale que la coopération transfrontalière fonctionne, ou donne l'apparence de fonctionner, en raison de sa fragilité. Notre étude s'attache à démontrer que cette vulnérabilité des acteurs et des politiques dans le champ transfrontalier européen conditionne et entretient la coopération transfrontalière, caractérisée par trois traits principaux : d'abord, la coopération transfrontalière est une politique publique singulière, car elle suppose une invention territoriale qui pâtit toujours de crédibilité ; ensuite, la coopération transfrontalière est marquée par des politiques communautaires originales d'investissement multisectorielles, mais marginales (INTERREG) ; enfin, le cycle transfrontalier actuel se manifeste par des politiques de basse intensité, conduites par des réseaux d'acteurs dominés.