ABSTRACT
The authors define the notion of cross-border cooperation, considering the relational definition of territory and space jointly with a socio-ecological framework defining grounds for self-organization to cooperate over common resources. The aim is to add to the understanding of contemporary challenges of cooperation over state administrative borders by defining a conceptual path between materialism and a relational approach. For this purpose, the authors use and analyse the concept of scale, which is defined by the size of territories, organizations and institutions people design to manage and govern, but also by the permeability of borders between those territories, organizations and institutions, since permeability establishes the grounds for cooperation. Thus, the issue of rescaling is an important consideration in this chapter, particularly in the context of cooperation across and above borders. In addition, the authors discuss recent views on territoriality, as contemporary events of global as well as regional significance prove that one of the most important challenges of science with regard to territory, space and boundaries is to identify a universal concept that encapsulates unbounded, immaterial space and the resource-driven world of physical areas.
