Title of the Project
"National Border Experiences and Cross-Border Processes"

Since the European Single Market and the phenomenon called ›globalization‹ have come into existence, the role and meaning of national borders, state boundaries and political frontiers have been widely discussed.
While slogans like ›borderless Europe‹ or ›Europe without frontiers‹ have become well-known and popular, people living in border regions have to face new challenges. In the process of the institutional support of cross-border regions and the reshaping of national boundaries, we need to understand the manifold symbolic, political and general ›everyday‹ significances of multiple barrier effects that are created by national social security systems, language and the perception and maintenance of border institutions. The analysis of borders and cross-border experiences cannot be restricted to the description of border regions as such. In this context this research explores how national borders maintain their traditional functional basis and describes how people living in border areas construct and shape the border in everyday life.
On the one hand, the research’s theoretical analysis of the sociological functions of borders will be illustrated by surveys held in three different cities bordering Denmark, France and Poland. On the other hand, it combines three different theoretical approaches. Georg Simmel’s sociological concept refers to space and boundaries as kinds of projections in which interactions and social constructions give space its significance and meaning. Max Weber’s focus on different (i. e. open vs. closed) social relationships describes national and ethnic communities as merely imagined ones and can be used to analyse the intensity of cross-border actions. Border studies, finally, help to identify and analyse the European Union’s cross-border programmes and the persistence of borders.
National borders are not similar to societies, nor do boundaries coincide with the system of nation states or territoriality. Border areas have their own reality that is to be found somewhere between national interests, European politics and people’s different perceptions of borders.