ABSTRACT
Borders exist in almost every sphere of life. Initially, borders were established in connection with kingdoms, regions, towns, villages and cities. With nation-building, they became important as a line separating two national states with different “national characteristics,” narratives and myths. The term “border” has a negative connotation for being a separating line, a warning signal not to cross a line between the allowed and the forbidden. The awareness of both mental and factual borders in manifold spheres of our life has made them a topic of consideration in almost all scholarly disciplines – history, geography, political science and many others. This book primarily incorporates an interdisciplinary and comparative approach. Historians, sociologists, anthropologists and political science scholars from a diverse range of European universities analyze historical as well as contemporary perceptions and perspectives concerning border regions – inside the EU, between EU and non-EU European countries, and between European and non-European countries.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|130 pages
Territorial Disputes and Questions of Identity
chapter 1|20 pages
The Spanish-Portuguese Frontier (1297–1926)
chapter 2|19 pages
The Boundaries Between France and Spain in the Catalan Pyrenees
chapter 5|17 pages
The Spanish-Moroccan Relationship
chapter 6|18 pages
From a Look Backwards to a Look Forwards
part II|71 pages
Cross-Border Cooperation
chapter 8|20 pages
Resignification of the Past in Northern Portugal/Galicia Border
chapter 9|18 pages
Towards Cross-Border Network Governance?
chapter 11|11 pages
The Bulgarian-Greek Border Region
part III|86 pages
Perceptions of Borders and Border Regimes
chapter 13|21 pages
(Im)Permeability of the Border in Late Socialism
chapter 16|19 pages
Between Borders and Boundaries
part IV|51 pages
Prejudices, Stereotypes, and Nationalism