Cross-Border Review 2020

The 2020 Cross Border Review highlights insights from research and policy debate regarding borders, cross-border cooperation and territorial development. This time around the central theme invites us to reflect on the multilevel and everyday significance of borders by engaging in border thinking exercises. This kind of thinking suggests a kind of mindfulness as well as critical self-reflection on the ways in which we negotiate and make borders as part of our social interactions. This is not about some atomised or individualised gaze on borders, although our individual senses of being and cognitive faculties are very much in evidence; border thinking emerges as a project of co-creation and intersubjective communication. We realise that we create borders with others and in response to others and do so under the numerous restrictions and opportunities that condition our lives.

Maria Lugonés (1992: 3-4) has aptly defined border thinking as “a tolerance for contradiction and ambiguity, (a) transgression of rigid conceptual boundaries, and (…) the creative breaking of the new unitary aspects of new and old paradigms.” However, we need not enter into decolonial negation of the past – we cannot totally escape it – in order to appreciate the universal message that border thinking conveys.  This kind of thinking is both cosmopolitan and locally situated, it is also resistant to monological obsessions with identity, nation and territory. James Scott elaborates on the issue of border thinking in more depth as part of a brief polemic that starts off this issue.

From this conceptual discussion we move to the level of research in the field, Marnix Mohrmann lifts the ‘veil’ of the borderscape concept by going beyond its ‘irresistible vagueness’, defining borderscaping as a plurivocal process of border-making that is based on lived experience. As Mohrmann shows, this can be made concrete through analysing representations, perceptions and interpretations of borders from multiple perspectives. With this approach he suggests we can move beyond borderscapes as something inherently caught up in the political and state-bound construction of borders. His example is that of Northern Ireland, where in the case of Ulster streets have become literal barriers dividing several different socio-cultural and political perspectives on the borderscape. By combining these individual perspectives, Mohrmann reveals the various building blocks that constitute the Ulster borderscape as an everyday space and not just as political agency.

The following contribution by Jussi P. Laine complements the first two essays by inviting us to explore the complexity of borders from a perspective of perceived (in)security. Borders are of course traditionally instruments that defend and secure territorial control, Here, however, the focus is on ontological security which entails the stability of personal identity and a sense of order and continuity. Ontological security can be considered as a fundamental human need to feel whole and stable over time and particularly during disruptive events and crises that threaten wellbeing. This, however, can also entail the magnification and exaggeration of threat perceptions regarding perceived enemies, migrants for example. In this way, Laine focuses his discussion of migration as a phenomenon and its political and social framing as a challenge. The rather unwelcoming mindset towards immigration throughout Europe is not merely an indicator of anti-migrant attitudes, it is rather more as a symptom of a more general sense of insecurity gripping many Europeans societies. Amidst multiple overlapping crises, migrants have become convenient scapegoats for all things wrong and bad. This fact reminds us that border thinking needs to be reflective and measured lest imaginaries of (in)security dominate political agendas.

In this issue of the Review we will also scrutinise empirical tools that put local communities at the centre of creating what we can consider border knowledge. What this entails is an enabling of communication across group identities and administrative boundaries in order to achieve common understandings about problems and their solutions. In their essay, Hayley Trowbridge and Michael Willoughby also focus on the concept of co-creation and its salience regarding engagement with local communities, particularly highly diverse communities that face multiple social and political challenges. Within this context, the Community Reporting (CR) method facilitates border-crossing in diverse neighbourhoods by developing avenues of communication between citizens and stakeholders. Citizen participation as it is more commonly known in some contexts, is becoming increasingly prevalent across Europe. It is the result of a movement that is partly bottom-up, with some of its history bound up in the participatory healthcare movement ‘nothing about me without me’, which began some 20 years ago, and the push from the European Union to get public administrations to engage with citizens in a real way, thereby democratising the process of service design and implementation. This essay explains the workings of CR as a method for involving citizens and allowing their voices to be heard with a unique usage of digital storytelling and data curation processes. It begins with a look at current trends in literature on storytelling and its role within the field of research. It then goes on to describe how storytelling has been used via Community Reporting methods as an important evaluation tool in the Horizon 2020 project CoSIE, which entails 9 pilot schemes in as many European countries, all of which employ co-creation practices as a basis for design and production

Martin Barthel, Alicja Fajfer and Hannah Heyenn continue exploration of local contexts and a bottom-up perspective on ‘peripheral places’ in two European borderlands.  In this case the keyword is social cohesion. As Laine has suggested in this essay, ontological security is very much dependent upon a sense of belonging and living in a stable environment. Here, the authors investigate how lifeworlds in peripheries reflect the impacts of crumbling social cohesion on the lives of six stylised personas: three from Finnish Lieksa – at the EU’s external border between Finland and Russia, and three from Vorpommern-Greifswald at the German-Polish and thus internal EU border. The personas are based on narratives curated from fieldwork and interviews. The narratives reflect trajectories of citizens in these two border regions which has dealing with population loss, youth unemployment and a degradation of community cohesion. In doing this the authors explore the roles of social networks, social capital, place attachment and identity as stabilizing elements. The salience of this research, funded by the EU’s Erasmus+ and H2020 programmes, is given by its relevance to contemporary debate on the future of European Cohesion Policy and whether borderland peripheries will have a future role to play in its development.

In the following essay Joni Virkkunen deals with regional and cross-border cooperation between Finland and Russia which despite the geopolitical vicissitudes of the post-Millennium remains significant as a platform for dialogue.  The European Union’s joint foreign and security policy and policy towards the Russia Federation are in a process of rapid evolution, they also expose several of the weaknesses of EU actorness. The EU and its member states are closely interdependent with Russia through economic and energy exchange, trade, business, tourism and cultural ties. Some politicians, member states and EU Officers are extremely critical towards Russia due to Russia’s aggressive behaviour in international politics. Others, like Finland, emphasise the significance of dialogue and cooperation as Russia is an important neighbour with which a certain political, governance and citizens’ everyday encounters are necessary. This essay focuses on Finland’s attempts to be an ‘active, pragmatic and solution-oriented member state’ of the European Union in developing working relations with its neighbour. Besides the Finnish state, also Finland’s Northern and Eastern border areas have a particular strategic interest in cooperation with Russia.

In the final essay of this Review we dedicate attention to migration management. In his contribution Roberto Uebel addresses migration as a fundamental form of border crossing, that is central to the continued vitality of national economies, in this case that of Brazil. As he demonstrates, economic, social and labour conditions in Brazil, and especially in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, have, over the past two decades, allowed an increase in international immigration of individuals with very varied academic and professional skills. Moreover, the decrease in population growth and the labour force of the State coupled with an increasing demand for skilled workers in order to revamp the state economy, make this immigration a window of opportunity. In his essay Uebel compares Brazilian and Canadian public policies, indicating how Canadian experience might serve as a template for managing immigration in Rio Grande do Sul. He does this by identifying possible points of convergence and applicability and then proposing the introduction of a points system that targets the optimization of immigration flows. The central idea operating here is that migration needs to be recognized as a resource rather than as a problem. The growth and development of Brazil and Rio Grande do Sul state in particular will depend on an open and effective migration management system that takes into account different micro-regional characteristics and needs, as is the case with Canada and its provinces.

Teodor Gyelnik provides an insightful review of Frank Furedi’s most recent book which is also discussed by James Scott in his essay on border thinking. The title of the book, ‘Why Borders Matter’, is at the same time a mission statement. As Furedi argues, in our contemporary world the deconstruction of borders and boundaries has generated profound crises of individual and group identities. Borders play a central structuring role in developing a sense of self and the absence of clear boundaries profoundly confuses Self and identity. Consequently, the multiplication of unstable free-floating identities results in considerable nervousness, anxiety and tension. This book stands out in that it aims to break with the academic mainstream which is more inclined towards the idea of cosmopolitanism and an implied ideology of openness and free borders. This book represents and articulates a rather rare conservative approach and it expresses academic support for borders, boundaries and national sovereignty. As such it will be an important and polemical contribution to ethical debate on borders and boundaries.

Finally, it should be mentioned that the production of this year’s edition has been marked by the advent of a global pandemic which has had fundamental impacts on everyday life, mobility, work, education and ultimately borders. The 2020 Review therefore closes with a brief research note by Anna Casaglia and James Scott regarding the Cvid-19 epidemic and its impacts on borders. This is partly based on a webinar organised by Ben Gurion University of the Negev on 16 June 2020 entitlesd ‘Controlling and Managing Europe’s Borders During COVID 19’. In this research note we present some of the major bordering dynamics that can be attributed to the pandemic.

Contents

Introduction

• James W Scott: Introduction to the 2020 issue of Cross-Border Review

Articles

• James W Scott: Border Thinking Revisited
• Marnix Mohrmann: Lifting the veil of the borderscape
• Jussi P. Laine: Fear and loathing in the European Union: Immigration and the hunt for a homogeneous home
• Hayley Trowbridge, Michael Willoughby: Connecting Voices, Challenging Perspectives and Catalysing Change: Using storytelling as a tool for co-creation in public services across Europe
• Alicja Fajfer, Hannah Heyenn and Martin Barthel: Social Cohesion in EU Peripheries: Negotiating Opportunities in German & Finnish Peripheries
• Joni Virkkunen: Finnish-Russian Cooperation: Between Geopolitics and Pragmatism
• Roberto Rodolfo Georg Uebel: Adapting the Canadian immigration policies to Brazil: the case study of Rio Grande do Sul

Book review

• Frank Furedi (2021): Why Borders Matter: Why Humanity Must Relearn the Art of Drawing Boundaries (Teodor Gyelnik)

Research Note

• Anna Casaglia and James Scott: Research Note on Covid and Bordering

Authors

Martin Barthel, University of Eastern Finland, Karelian Institute

Anna Casaglia, University of Trento

Alicja Fajfer, University of Eastern Finland, Karelian Institute

Teodor Gyelnik, Central European Service for Cross-Border Initiatives

Hannah Heyenn, Comparative Research Network and University of Kassel

Jussi Laine, University of Eastern Finland, Karelian Institute

Marnix Mohrmann, Ruimte in Advies, Heerlen, Netherlands

James Scott, University of Eastern Finland, Karelian Institute

Hayley Trowbridge, People’s Voice Media, Salford, UK

Roberto Rodolfo Georg Uebel, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul

Joni Virkkunen, University of Eastern Finland, Karelian Institute

Michael Willoughby, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia