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The succession of rebordering shocks that occurred in recent years raises questions about the implications of these (geo)political events for cross-border cooperation. Based on the premise that special attention should be paid to the evolution of ideas pertaining to borders as a forerunner of significant policy changes, this paper seeks to show the extent to which the reintroduction of temporary border controls between Sweden and Denmark since 2015 has changed the meaning cross-border cooperation stakeholders give to the national border crossing the Öresund region. In order to identify ideational shifts in the mindset of cross-border cooperation actors, the multiplicity of meanings concerning borders is captured according to a relational perspective using semantic network analysis. In doing so, an innovative method is proposed. The comparative analysis of actors' collective mental representations of the border in 2014 and 2021 allows us to show the impact of rebordering shocks. If the connecting role of the border is now considered marginal, the opportunities it is likely to represent for the Öresund region's economic growth are still relevant. Moreover, the recognition of a common regional identity also appears to have been strengthened. In the meantime, the idea that the border could be a source of conflict has gained momentum. The increasing recognition of the ambivalence of the border reminds us that a crisis is often a source of new challenges, but also of opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic was the temporary closure of many state borders and the reintroduction of border controls. This included countries in the Schengen Area, and thus the Polish-German border. These events can be seen as an example of rebordering processes. They significantly impacted the life of Polish-German twin cities, whose functioning is based mainly on cross-border flows, mobility, and exchange. The paper aims to determine how the temporary border closure affected the Polish-German borderland identity. This is based on qualitative empirical research. The research is comparative in nature and juxtaposes statements collected before (in-depth interviews) and during (phone interviews) the pandemic. On this basis, the identity of the borderland is described in four dimensions: othering, sense of belonging, cultural landscape, and border practices and routines. This made it possible to characterize the impact of the border closure on the local community more comprehensively. Negating the border as a place of exchange, and associating it with a threat, resulted in economic decline and a sense of uprooting. This conclusion should translate into more significant consideration of the identity aspect in public policies designed to address border closures in the EU following the pandemic.

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The EU has been under severe strain as a free-travel area. The migration crisis of the mid-2010s and the current Covid-19 pandemic have exerted a negative impact on the freedom of movement in the EU and the undisturbed crossing of internal borders within the Schengen area. Direct effects and long-term consequences of the prolonged crisis have shown that the dynamics of integration, which are determined by spillover effects of transnational processes, are counterposed by a politicization of domestically-embedded issues of security governance. This assumption underpins the postfunctionalist approach to European integration proposed originally by Hooghe and Marks. The tendency towards longstanding derogations from the Schengen regime, termed “internal rebordering,” should be juxtaposed with efforts of the European Commission towards a full restoration of the Schengen area without controls at internal borders. The argument developed in this article holds that internal rebordering has been embedded in the logic of the EU as an area of freedom, security, and justice comprising the Schengen area as its territorial manifestation. The rebordering processes in the EU and in the Schengen area have questioned the principle of “constraining dissensus” underlaying the postfunctionalist approach.

The experiences of cross‐border workers (CBWs) and the difficulties they face during the ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic have been neglected in previous research. CBWs experience various stressors under normal circumstances, where they are often subjected to unequal working conditions and forced to transition between two different societies. The measures that were introduced in response to the COVID‐19 pandemic, including the implementation of physical borders, further worsened the situation for these individuals. Herein, we draw on qualitative interview data from 35 CBWs from the Czech Republic and Germany to explore their experiences of work, stress, support, and their positioning in society during the pandemic. We detail the dissatisfaction felt by CBWs regarding re‐bordering, the lack of coordination in the crisis management, and the lack of support from national governments and the EU. This study provides unique insights into the difficulties and experiences of CBWs in a time of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the Canada/US border experienced a rebordering phenomenon. It inserted a logic that was antagonistic to the logic of integration that the border had known for several decades. This article proposes to reflect on this phenomenon of integration through a theoretical analysis of the Canada/US border by applying different models in order to evaluate its degree of integration through a study of its different functions.

Lucas Pope's 2013 video game Papers, Please places the player-character in the position of an immigration inspector in a fictional Eastern Bloc nation. Since its release, the game has garnered enthusiastic responses, being celebrated by critics as an essential dramatisation of the ethical di- lemmas associated with the migratory flows and fraught border politics of the post-9/11 world. However, this essay argues that this reputation must be scrutinised: for while Papers, Please indeed illustrates some of the contradictions at the heart of contemporary border policy - such as immigrant-receiving states' pragmatic application of exclusionary immigration practices that run contrary to their self-professed liberal-democratic ideals - it also engages in a 'universalising' abstraction of the border space, which limits its feasibility as a lens through which to view 2010s border discourses. Drawing from current research in Border Studies, a close reading of Pope's game illustrates how its geo-historical setting and its omission of crucial phenomena associated with the twenty-first-century border, such as the interactional processes of bordering and the existence of 'bi-cultural' borderscapes, ultimately render it a liberal-democrat- ic fantasy, according to which the conflicts engendered by the enforced geopolitical border are abstract questions of morality and ethics rather than practical socio-political questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on border studies that recognise rebordering practices as ongoing performances of conflict between various actors including state authorities, border security agents, migrants, migrant supporters, smugglers, international organisations, lawyers, advocates and others. We draw attention to variable levels of intensity with which these conflicts are performed and the impact they have on migrants' ability to exercise their agency. We understand intensity to mean not merely the emotional discursive environment in which these conflicts unfold, and the pressure tactics used by at least some parties, but, more importantly, the speed of the responses by all actors involved in this border performance. Focusing on rebordering practices at the US--Mexico borderlands in 2018 and 2019 adopted in response to new forms of mobility, we characterise these years as a period of high intensity, when rapidly changing policies provoked immediate responses by migrants, and equally speedy counter-responses by other actors, particularly the US and Mexican administration. We suggest that the volatile architecture of border control in the US--Mexico borders has rendered many strategies employed by Central American migrants to overcome obstacles and create innovative solutions virtually ineffective. The article is based on an ethnographic study carried out between early May and mid-August 2019 in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the reaction of the EU and eight member states to the refugee crisis 2015/16 as a case of 'defensive integration'. In the absence of a joint EU solution, the member states were left to their own devices and took a series of national measures that varied from one country to the other, depending on their policy heritage, and the combination of problem pressure and political pressure which they were facing. As a result, debordering responses prevailed at first. Only in a second stage a set of national and EU measures aiming at internal and external re-bordering were introduced. At this stage, destination states proved to be the most important drivers of a joint solution, with Germany taking the lead. The overall outcome is an example of 'defensive integration', aiming squarely at joint solutions to stop the refugee flow outside the EU but not to manage it inside the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the Russian-language novel Mark Sheider (2009) by the Ukrainian author Dmitrii Savochkin in the context of the classical American and European (Émile Zola, Upton Sinclair, George Orwell), as well as Russo-Ukrainian (Aleksandr Kuprin, Larisa Reisner, Vasilii Grossman, Boris Gorbatov, Fridrikh Gorenshtein) writing about mining. It identifies some topoi common to mining fiction and non-fiction. It also considers the Russo-Ukrainian versions of such topoi, with a special focus on extractivism represented as a form of rebordering. Wolfgang Iser's concept of fictional representation provides the article with the principal theoretical framework for the analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article documents and analyzes the response of cities in the u.s.-Mexico border region to the health emergency and the rebordering process triggered by COVID-19. Like many other countries, the United States and Mexico's primary strategy to contain the spread of Coronavirus has been the adoption of social distancing measures and restrictions on mobility, including the closure of the common border. An immediate implication of this process is the strengthening of national governments' presence in border health management and, potentially, the contraction of governance spaces in which subnational actors traditionally participate. By analyzing secondary data for eight pairs of co-adjacent border cities, local actors' responses to the pandemic are examined in the context of a rapid rebordering process and post-pandemic cross-border governance, and cooperation scenarios are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El text proposa una visió dels espais transfronterers des de la perspectiva dels soft spaces —espais tous— en relació amb el planejament territorial. Amb aquesta s’aconsegueix una interpretació molt més ajustada del que són en realitat les àrees transfrontereres així com de les dinàmiques que s’hi produeixen. D’altra banda, l’article fa un repàs del que ha estat la cooperació transfronterera a Europa fins arribar al present. Partint de la coincidència amb altres autors en la definició de fases, s’acaba proposant que l’última, iniciada el 2008, es caracteritzaria per la tensió entre les forces que reclamen una recuperació de la frontera i la sobirania dels estats i les que, contràriament, propugnen recuperar la idea d’integració europea perduda en la darrera dècada. És a dir, precisament una tensió entre els soft spaces transfronterers i un rebordering incipient.

The objective of this article is to analyze how the increasing securitization and militarization of Mexican migration policies against irregular migration has led to recent refronterizations marked by the widening and multiplication of borders throughout the national territory, and attempts -disjointed- of governmentalization of migrations in transit. To achieve this analysis we focus on regions traditionally not considered border areas, in that sense we seek an interpretation of space policies (physical and symbolic boundaries) in the Metropolitan Zone of Guadalajara, Mexico. We discuss the spatial nature of power, demonstrating the mechanisms that transform certain subjects into authorized and unauthorized bodies to transit, remain or be recognized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El texto propone una visión de los espacios transfronterizos desde la perspectiva de los soft spaces —los espacios blandos— con relación al planeamiento territorial. Con ella se consigue una interpretación mucho más ajustada de la realidad de las áreas transfronterizas, así como de sus dinámicas. Por otra parte, el artículo hace un repaso a lo que ha sido la cooperación transfronteriza en Europa desde sus orígenes hasta llegar al presente. Partiendo de una coincidencia con otros autores en la definición de fases, se acaba proponiendo que la última, iniciada en 2008, se caracterizaría por la tensión entre las fuerzas que reclaman una recuperación de la frontera y la soberanía de los estados y las que, contrariamente, propugnan recuperar la idea de integración europea perdida en la última década. Es decir, precisamente una tensión entre los soft spaces transfronterizos y un rebordering incipiente.

The institutional reform of the European Union, especially as introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon, has led to the strengthening of some of the actors within the political system of this integration grouping. The European Council is one of the winners of these developments, which is visible - among other things - in the fields considered to be of key importance for the European project, for example external activities. This analysis aims at testing the dynamism of the decision-making process of the European council in the context of the immigration crisis of 2015. It tries to approach the issue conceptually, combining the grand theories of the European studies with the theoretical concepts of the still emerging discipline of border studies. This empirical analysis is based on a content analysis of European Council summits' Conclusions. The author claims that the European Council has not only become a key platform for deciding about the most pressing issues within the European Union, but also that its approach to the Union's borders has evolved towards the rebordering of its edges, when structuring the relations with its neighborhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent sociolinguistic research adds new economic sectors, such as the service economy, to the list of key forces that shape unequal, dynamic and com-plex diglossia (e.g., Spanish in the United States). However, little detailed work has been done on the linguistic characteristics of specific labor sectors in the wider contexts of “debordering” and “rebordering”. In this article we develop in depth the market mechanisms and institutional constraints that shape the valua-tion and social expansion of Spanish in El Paso, Texas. The study finds that in sectors with low skills and low linguistic intensity, linguistic management poli-cies are effectively “Spanish-only”. However, as skills increase and there is a greater need for regulated communication in the occupational role, more con-straints are observed on how Spanish functions in work use and professional careers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experiences of cross-border workers (CBWs) and the difficulties they face during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have been neglected in previous research. CBWs experience various stressors under normal circumstances, where they are often subjected to unequal working conditions and forced to transition between two different societies. The measures that were introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the implementation of physical borders, further worsened the situation for these individuals. Herein, we draw on qualitative interview data from 35 CBWs from the Czech Republic and Germany to explore their experiences of work, stress, support, and their positioning in society during the pandemic. We detail the dissatisfaction felt by CBWs regarding re-bordering, the lack of coordination in the crisis management, and the lack of support from national governments and the EU. This study provides unique insights into the difficulties and experiences of CBWs in a time of crisis., (© 2022 The Authors. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies published by University Association for Contemporary European Studies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Tourism has clear connections to bordering, debordering and rebordering. Each part of this process has important implications for tourism and development in the heritage borderscapes of border tourism destinations. The study illustrates past and current changes to the border within the bordering-debordering-rebordering framework. In particular it highlights the role of tourism in this process as both an agent and recipient of border changes. To examine the main ideas presented so far empirically, the authors chose a location on Usedom Island on the Baltic coast, which is a unique coastal tourism destination on the border of Germany and Poland. The paper uses a mixed methods, case study approach utilizing formal and informal interviews with local authorities, the content of strategic development documents and archived photographs, and systematic landscape/locational surveys. The Polish-German border symbolizes the territorial evolution of Germany and Poland, and represents differing languages and cultures that are simultaneously united through the debordering effects of the EU and Schengen, and divided through the symbolic rebordering activities of border commemoration for tourism purposes. The border functions as a destination, thanks to the binational differences, maintained border markers, heritagized relict border landscapes, decaying border infrastructure, and newly erected additional signage and symbols that commemorate the international boundary. All of these elements are of critical importance in border destination management. • Examines the processes of bordering, debordering, and rebordering in tourism. • Each border process has symbolic meaning and consequences for tourism. • Debordering and rebordering are important in borderland destination management. • Symbolic rebordering occurs with heritage commemoration and infrastructure growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper aims to theorize the major aspects of the Spanish–Moroccan rebordering since Spain joined the European Union in 1986. The paper starts by providing a brief historical–geographical overview of the evolution of this border. Afterwards, the core of the theoretical discussion is addressed. The theorization follows a three-fold structure that scrutinizes the geopolitical, functional, and symbolic aspects of the Spanish–Moroccan border reconfiguration. Taking the general Spanish–Moroccan border as the point of departure, the analytical framework is gradually channeled towards the (EU)ro-African border scenarios constructed around Ceuta and Melilla, the two North-African cities under Spanish sovereignty. In doing so, the paper describes how the tripartite rebordering process has shaped the contemporary geography of these peculiar segments of the land border between the EU/Spain and Morocco. To conclude, this paper underlines how the Spanish–Moroccan border is rooted in an increasing divergence between the implementation of EU external border securitization needs and the management of free-trade. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]