The 2004 entry of 10 Central and Eastern European countries, along with Malta and Cyprus, into the EU has caused a huge shift in the EU's external boundaries. The socio-economic and political transformations that this shift has caused not only suggest new regional development opportunities, but also many potential problems and tensions. While the EU insists that enlargement will not signify 'new divisions', processes of inclusion and exclusion and the imposition of visa restrictions on non-EU citizens could pose obstacles to co-operation, conjuring fears of an emerging 'fortress Europe' that effectively divides the continent. Illustrated with case studies from Central and Eastern European border areas, this book examines capacities for region building across national borders in within the context of EU enlargement, synthesizing the various insights provided by local information and suggesting ways forward for the future development of the EU's 'Wider Europe' strategy.
The 2004 entry of 10 Central and Eastern European countries, along with Malta and Cyprus, into the EU has caused a huge shift in the EU's external boundaries. The socio-economic and political transformations that this shift has caused not only suggest new regional development opportunities, but also many potential problems and tensions. While the EU insists that enlargement will not signify 'new divisions', processes of inclusion and exclusion and the imposition of visa restrictions on non-EU citizens could pose obstacles to co-operation, conjuring fears of an emerging 'fortress Europe' that effectively divides the continent. Illustrated with case studies from Central and Eastern European border areas, this book examines capacities for region building across national borders in within the context of EU enlargement, synthesizing the various insights provided by local information and suggesting ways forward for the future development of the EU's 'Wider Europe' strategy.
A Companion to Border Studies A Companion to Border Studies “Taking into consideration all aspects this book has a very important role in the professional literature of border studies.” Cross-Border Review Yearbook of the European Institute “Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.” Choice “This book, with its interdisciplinary team of authors from many world regions, shows the state of the art in this research field admirably.” Ulf Hannerz, Stockholm University “This volume will be the definitive work on borders and border-related processes for years into the future. The editors have done an outstanding job of identifying key themes, and of assembling influential scholars to address these themes. David Nugent, Emory University “This urgently needed Companion, edited by two leading figures of border studies, reflects past insights and showcases new directions: a must read for understanding territory, power and the state.” Dr. Nick Vaughan-Williams, University of Warwick “This impressive collection will have a broad appeal beyond specialist border studies. Anyone with an interest in the nation-state, nationalism, ethnicity, political geography or, indeed, the whole historical project of the modern world system will want to have access to a copy. The substantive scope is global and the intellectual reach deep and wide. Simply indispensable. ” Richard Jenkins, University of Sheffield Dramatic growth in the number of international borders has coincided in recent years with greater mobility than ever before – of goods, people and ideas. As a result, interest in borders as a focus of academic study has developed into a dynamic, multi-disciplinary field, embracing perspectives from anthropology, development studies, geography, history, political science and sociology. Authors provide a comprehensive examination of key characteristics of borders and frontiers, including cross-border cooperation, security and controls, migration and population displacements, hybridity, and transnationalism. A Companion to Border Studies brings together these disciplines and viewpoints, through the writing of an international collection of preeminent border scholars. Drawing on research from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas, the contributors argue that the future of Border Studies lies within such diverse collaborations, which approach comparatively the features of borders worldwide.
The EU continuously searches for more effective policy towards its eastern neighbourhood, which is reflected in the on-going adaptation of its existing approaches, discourses and policy strategies to the new challenges of its external environment. In order to understand the complexity and limitations of the EU framework under the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and the Eastern Partnership Initiative (EaP) – that is, to consider the interface between policy instruments, institutional structures, and multiple agents – one needs to adopt an original analytical perspective of practices to comprehensively assess the policies’ outcomes. This volume therefore offers an examination of social practices as implemented through the use of policy instruments and subsequently embedded into the existing/emergent social structures which shape and determine the EU-neighbours’ relations. To gauge success of the ENP in the eastern region, the manuscript pulls together a rich collection of geographical and thematic case-studies, joined by the overarching conceptual framework of practices. This study’s principal aims are to discern patterns of social practices which guide agents’ interactions in different policy areas; to explore the origin and effect of these practices (the role of dominant discourses, logistical imbalances, deliberate strategies, etc.); and to explicate the nature of the emerging social structures being established in the eastern region. This approach is distinctive from other constructivist undertakings as it allows to synergise the meanings of social actions (through the focus on agents and instruments), and their structural extensions (through the focus on emergent structures) across geo- and bio-political localities of the EU and its eastern neighbourhood. This book was published a sa special issue of East European Politics.
"Proceeding of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Security and Cross/Border Cooperation in the EU, the Black Sea Region and Southern Caucasus, Ankara, Turkey, 23-24 September 2011"--Title page verso.
Recent events in Ukraine and Russia and the subsequent incorporation of Crimea into the Russian state, with the support of some circles of inhabitants of the peninsula, have shown that the desire of people to belong to the Western part of Europe should not automatically be assumed. Discussing different perceptions of the Ukrainian-Russian war in neighbouring countries, this book offers an analysis of the conflicts and issues connected with the shifting of the border regions of Russia and Ukraine to show how ’material’ and ’psychological’ borders are never completely stable ideas. The contributors – historians, sociologists, anthropologists and political scientists from across Europe – use an interdisciplinary and comparative approach to explore the different national and transnational perceptions of a possible future role for Russia.
In the context of the end of the Cold War and the spread of globalism, sub-regions are attracting attention as new social units of international society never before observed. In the "second wave" of regionalism that became active in the 1980s, a new regionalism, which differed qualitatively from the old regionalism, expanded globally. This "new regionalism" is characterized by multi-dimensionality, complexity, fluidity, and non-conformity, and within it we cannot overlook the fact that spaces on a new scale, such as sub-regions, are being formed in various parts of the world. The sovereign state system that has continued unbroken since the Westphalia Treaty is being transformed, and within this context, the increase in the number of sub-regions as new social units adds to the sense that we have arrived at a post-Westphalian international order. This book focuses on sub-region as a new social unit of international society. It is based on the findings obtained through meticulous fieldwork and joint studies conducted over the past 10 years by about 20 researchers, primarily from Japanese universities and Chiang Mai University, Thailand. The sub-regions described here are mostly international cross-border spaces or units in the interior of a certain region, which include: multiple states, states and parts of states, or more than two parts of states (often referred to as micro-regions). Such sub-regions have been formed in various parts of the world since the end of the Cold War. However, studies on sub-regions remain unexplored in the existing studies of regionalism. The few studies that do exist mainly focus on the economic aspects of sub-regions. In contrast, this book will specifically examine the sub-regions in Asia (especially the Mekong region and Europe) as main cases from a political science and international relations perspective, aiming to establish a new/alternative international relations by carving out a political angle of sub-region as a new social unit of international society and attempting to shift the paradigm of conventional international relations. To understand the political dimension of a sub-region, this book will mainly focus on three aspects: sub-regions and state strategies, bottom-up dimension of sub-regions, and sub-regions and borders.
The implementation of the Association Agreement (AA), including the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), between the EU and Ukraine has brought about a qualitatively new situation in the development of border regions and regional societies on both sides of the Schengen border. This volume’s comparative study of the impacts of the AA and the DCFTA on borderlands in Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania will contribute to the identification of new opportunities for cross-border cooperation and policy considerations for its further development.
There is broad acceptance across the Humanities and Social Sciences that our deliberations on the social need to take place through attention to practice, to object-mediated relations, to non-human agency and to the affective dimensions of human sociality. This Companion focuses on the objects and materials found at centre stage, and asks: what matters about objects? Objects and Materials explores the field, providing succinct summary accounts of contemporary scholarship, along with a wealth of new research investigating the capacity of objects to shape, unsettle and exceed expectations. Original chapters from over forty international, interdisciplinary contributors address an array of objects and materials to ask what the terms of collaborations with objects and materials are, and to consider how these collaborations become integral to our understandings of the complex, relational dynamics that fashion social worlds. Objects and Materials will be of interest to students and scholars across the social sciences and humanities, including in sociology, social theory, science and technology studies, history, anthropology, archaeology, gender studies, women’s studies, geography, cultural studies, politics and international relations, and philosophy.
