Conference at Royal Holloway, University of London, 21-22 April 2005
Rethinking European Spaces: Territory, Borders, Governance

Final programme

Thursday 21^st  April 2005

11.30 - 12.30 Arrival, registration and coffee

12.30 – 14.00
Plenary 1: Europe’s borders
Thomas Diez (Birmingham) - The Paradoxes of Europe’s Borders
Barrie Axford (Oxford Brookes) - Networks and Boundaries in Europe
Venue: ALT 1
Chair: Chris Rumford

14.00 – 14.30  Coffee

14.30 – 16.15
Workshop 1: South East Europe: new borders, new spaces
Andreev, S. (Westminster) - Legitimacy problems of borders in southeast Europe
Syrri, D. and Stubbs, P. (Zagreb) - Cross-border interventions in southeast Europe
Vucevic, A., Spasojevic, D., Kralev, P. (Sheffield/Belgrade) - Borders and security in southeast Europe
Xenitidou, M. (Sheffield) - Rethinking South East European Spaces
Venue: AG 24
Chair: F. Peter Wagner

14.30 – 16.15
Workshop 2: Border thinking/rethinking borders
Kartik Raj - European Border Politics and Radical Democratic Potential
Tunney, J. (Abertay) - Pragmatic cosmopolitan method on law
Nuzzo, A. (USA) - Borders and centres: problems of European identity
Okhomina, S. (Nigeria) - States without borders: Westphalia and C21st Europe
Venue: ALT 2
Chair: Tim Richardson

14.30 – 16.15
Workshop 3: The ambiguity of European space
Verbakel, E. (USA) – Frontier margins: Flanders Fields as territories of ambiguity
Andornino, G. (LSE) - Understanding of the evolution in European spaces
Masso, A. (Estonia) - Social space in Estonia: communicative community
Maria Rovisco (Portugal) - European cultural space: new boundaries of inclusion and exclusion
Venue: ALT 1
Chair: Olivier Kramsch

16.15 - 16.45 Coffee

16.45 - 18.15
Keynote speech
William Walters (Carlton) - Mapping the New Frontier: Borders, Governance and Citizenship in Europe
Venue: ALT 1
Chair: Chris Rumford

19.30  Conference dinner (Crosslands Suite)

Friday 22^nd April 2005

09.00 – 09.30  Coffee

09.30 – 11.15
Workshop 4: Transnational spaces and Eastern borderlands
Gatev, I. (Aston) -  Regions, borders and essentialized spaces: the Ukraine
Hatziprokopiou, P. (Middlesex) - The Balkans as an emerging transnational space
Schmidt, K. (Germany) – Transnational spaces between Poland and Germany
Rosamond, B. (Warwick) The social construction of the European Economy
Venue: ALT 2
Chair: F. Peter Wagner

09.30 – 11.15
Workshop 5: Governing urban spaces
Hein, C. (USA) -The polycentric EU headquarters' network
Calay, V. (Belgium) - Producing the capital of Europe
Magosse, R. (Belgium) - Imagining (the capital of) Europe
Venue: AG 24
Chair: William Walters

09.30 – 11.15
Workshop 6: Rebordering European regions
Stephenson, P. (European Commission) - Transnational cooperation zones
Guha, R. (India) - Europeanisation and regionalisation : a new spatial dynamism
Celata, F. (Italy) - Cooperation, conflict and scale in Italian regional planning
Huggins, R. (Oxford Brookes) - Regulation of cross-border flows in drugs
Velicu, I. (Romania) - Regional integration versus global disenfranchisement
Venue: ALT 1
Chair: Thomas Diez

11.15 – 11.45  Coffee

11.45 – 13.15
Plenary 2: Pan-European spaces
Martin Lawn (Cardiff) - Soft Governance and the Learning Spaces of Europe 
Ulrike H. Meinhof (Southampton) - Re-imagining Transnational Europe
Venue: ALT 1
Chair: Chris Rumford

13.15 – 14.30  Lunch

14.30 – 16. 15
Workshop 7: European security
Daniele Conversi (LSE) - Rethinking European spaces after 9-11
Higate, P. and Henry, M. (Bristol) - Militarization and security on Cyprus
Rankin, M. (Australia) - Democracy and violence:  the territoriality of terror
Wagner, F.P. (Bulgaria) – Security and post-Communist European space
Venue: AG 24
Chair: Ben Rosamond

14.30 – 16. 15
Workshop 8: Cross-border mobilities
Dai, X. (Hull) - Policy spaces and European governance in the information age
Hess, S. (Germany) - Migration policies in Turkey
Molnar, J. (Queens, Belfast)- Border effects on populations
Lafleur, J-M (Belgium) - Transnational Europe and Transnational migration
Stevenson, N. (Nottingham) European Cosmopolitanism or Neo-Liberalism?
Venue: ALT 2
Chair: Richard Huggins

14.30 – 16. 15
Workshop 9: New European Spaces
Beasley, A. (USA) -  Rethinking EU citizenship for third country nationals
Vollaard, J.P. (Netherlands) -  Europeanisation and political territoriality
Wright, S. (UEA) - A virtual European public sphere?
Edwards, S. (Sussex) - Explaining enlargement: space, governance, identity
Shahin, J - eEurope: a new way of governing the EU?
Venue: ALT 1
Chair: William Outhwaite

16.15 – 16.45  Coffee

16.45 – 18.15
Plenary 3: European governmentality
Tim Richardson (Sheffield) - Territorial cohesion and frictionless mobility
Olivier Thomas Kramsch (Nijmegen) - Transboundary governmentality on Europe’s postcolonial edge
Venue: ALT 1
Chair: Chris Rumford
                                                     

END

Abstracts

Axford, B. (Oxford Brookes) - Networks and Boundaries in Europe: old game, new game or Endgame?

In this presentation I shall consider the apparent antinomy of networks and borders in Europe, with special reference to the EU. On the face of it these concepts prescribe different sorts of European polity, different endgames, because they draw on different understandings of the ordering and significance of space. But just as forces of globalisation produces different kinds of states and territorialities, so states and groupings of states such as the EU have promoted networks, mobility(ies) and redefined borders.  In turn, the ubiquity and sometimes the menace of networks (as well as of flows, fluids, even chains of connection) have thrown borders and their maintenance into relief. Yet, networks are corrosive of borders, regardless of how these are defined and, in Europe, as elsewhere offer us glimpses of new socialities and new modes of governance. I shall draw on a range of illustrative material to underscore this last point, including European ‘netwars’, ideas about networked individualism and notions of insider/outsider applied to the movements of people and licit and illicit goods across borders. 

Thomas Diez , T. (Birmingham) - The Paradoxes of Europe’s Borders

European integration was to do away with the nation-state and its territorial configuration of society and politics, which was identified as the root cause of war. Indeed, the transformation of the French-German border is but one example of the power of integration in the move towards a new form of governance. Yet at the same time, new borders are being erected in Europe today. 9/11 has led to an increasing securitisation of borders and migration flows transcending them. Eastern enlargement has brought with it a more intense discussion about the borders of Europe itself, and more rigid border controls. In Cyprus, territorial borders and sovereignty are as prominent as ever. And even where integration has a positive impact on border conflict transformation, there are contrasting developments. This paradox of European integration both undermining and reinstating territorial borders and a territorial logic of governance can be better understood by examining two discursive logics that prevail in the debates about European integration and governance. The first one is the construction of the EU as a “normative power”. The transformation of borders is a crucial part of this normative power, yet the self-construction as a normative power leads to the differentiation of self and other that reinscribes borders. The second one is the long-standing simultaneity of the discourse on international and the discourse on world society within the integration project.

Andreev, S. (Westminster)- Legitimacy Problems of Borders and States in southeast Europe

Today there exists a complex relationship between an enlarging European Union and a group of countries forming a sub-region on the south-eastern fringes of the European continent, commonly referred to as the Balkans or South-Eastern Europe (SEE). The difficulty of “including” the other and preserving one’s own identity at the same time is one of the central questions in the relationship between the EU and the SEE countries. From the viewpoint of the current EU member states and probably Slovenia, which is a member of the Union as of 1 May 2004, the Balkans represent something “near” geographically, but very “different” politically, socially and economically. From the viewpoint of most SEE states, the “road to Europe,” which they believe, or hope, to be ultimately part of, passes through the strengthening of the nation-state, local democracy and the economy, rather than the opening of borders to the uncontrolled transfer of goods, services and values from the much more powerful and wealthy neighbouring states and international actors. This paper attempts to look at the legitimacy problems associated with borders in SEE. It not only tries to provide an internal, regional perspective, but also tries to link this issue to the ongoing enlargement of the EU eastwards. This paper primarily looks at the set of legitimacy problems linked with the transformation of borders in SEE and Europe. However, it pays attention to related issues such as the evolving nature of statehood and citizenship as a function of borders. Finally, it is worth noting, parts of the analysis of some of these problems are accompanied by policy recommendations, which intend to shape the debate about the borders in SEE and the EU during and after the current enlargement.

Syrri, D. and Stubbs, P. (Zagreb) - Constructing ‘cross-border’ interventions in southeast Europe: a study of discourses, transactions and power in ‘development’ in the Prespa region

The paper aims to analyse critically the discourses, policies and practices of a set of diverse international development actors engaged in relationships and interactions of ‘cross border cooperation’ in the Prespa region of Albania, Greece and (FYR) Macedonia. Specifically, the paper aims to: (i) understand the ways in which the Prespa region has, over time, been constituted as a space of unities, diversities, movements and stabilities; moving from a pre-national, trans-local area, to being divided between nation states and/or to eventual European integration; (ii) explore the discourses of contemporary international development agencies in constructing the region as a space for interventions, exercising transnational policy making, designed to promote co-operation  and inclusion rather than confrontation and exclusion within the Europeanisation exercise; (iii) address how these discourses are amplified, mediated, and resisted in practice by a range of local, regional  and national actors, including intermediaries and elites; (iv) contribute to an emerging literature which understands development as a series of transactions operating at multiple scales and levels.

Vucevic, A., Spasojevic, D., Kralev, P. (Sheffield/Belgrade) - Borders and security in southeast Europe: why the Western Balkans should become part of the EU

The integration process within the European Union (hereafter EU) has been contrasted with the disintegration and fragmentation of Balkans during the 1990s. In this context, borders and security have been experienced differently in these two regions. However, the common denominator for all the countries in the region of South-East Europe, and the main direction towards which they should go, is membership in the EU. The good results in the recent period in majority of the Western Balkan countries, such as economic growth, reform policies, regional cooperation including liberalization of visa regime, are showing the potential of the region to become the part of the EU in the future. The importance of the Western Balkans for the EU countries could be seen through serious financial, political and technical investments of EU toward region. It is easy to see the attempts of EU to accelerate reconstruction of the region that should lead to faster stabilization and association. It is important to point out that cross-cultural and regional cooperation in the Balkans is not an easy-going process and it is faced with obstacles such as nationalism or low level of multiethnic tolerance. At some parts of South-East Europe, exposure to war and isolation affected social identity of population that resulted in xenophobia, high rate of crime, increase of corruption, and ignorance of the real values that are coming from abroad.  The purpose of this multidisciplinary paper is to (1) prove that further developments in the Balkans and the EU essentially depend on the evolution of borders, within and between these two regions, (2) to point out the importance of integration of Western Balkans into EU for stability, prosperity and security of both, EU and Balkans and (3) to elaborate how regional isolation and ‘closed’ borders could affect social identity of population.

Xenitidou, M. (Sheffield) - Rethinking South East European Spaces: a socio-political perspective of governance and identity

Within the general framework of global governance there are two observable forces influencing European societies. These two forces are fragmentation and integration, which are both countervailing and simultaneous without being necessarily contradicting or mutually destructive. Both forces interact with each other and contribute to the foundation of a system in which actors and processes define themselves in relational terms. The creation of Westphalian bureaucratic sovereign states in South East European countries is prescribed by global governance structures as a prerequisite of integration. In the nation state system, states refer to each other as sovereign equals in an anarchical context, legitimized in universal codes which territorialize national identity. In the post-nation state system, which the global governance scheme denotes, the identities of individuals are not strictly bound by territory or national context. Therefore, the new form of governance of space in South-East Europe encounters the processes of fragmentation and integration as new states are formed and these are being integrated into larger structures of global governance. The existence of this processes give rise to the prospect of deconstructing the concept of territory. This paper argues that identity should no longer be conceptualized in reference to territory but rather to non-physical space, i.e. cultural space, cyber-space. This conception of space, therefore, may account for the accommodation of the de-territorialization of identity, the creation of non- and trans- national spaces and spatial – rather than territorial – cohesion. Cultural identities separating ‘us’ from ‘others’ and/or supporting the contact hypothesis seem to be at play regardless of the state apparatus and its demarcated territory. At the same time the nation state remains a referent – be that a construct or an entity – and a space, which is subjectively experienced and comprised by collective form(s) of life, which are not necessarily and conclusively national.

Kartik Raj (US) - European Border Politics and Radical Democratic Potential: Movement and Detention in the Straits of Gibraltar

This paper uses insights of recent Marxist and post-structuralist theories of the state and democracy to understand two aspects of movement and detention in the Straits of Gibraltar, and to advance two broader claims about contemporary European politics. The first part examines Spanish detention policies aimed at asylum-seekers and illegal entrants to Ceuta, one of Spain's enclaves in Morocco, which occupies an interesting, exceptional space, within the EU and yet outside the Schengen zone. I suggest here, drawing on the work of the philosophers Étienne Balibar, Gilles Deleuze, and Giorgio Agamben, that as EU states work to coordinate a common border policy, new forms of European borders are at work. These 'new' borders are no longer territorial lines, but instead form a constellation of points located in immigration detention centers, airports, ports, and ghettoes. Ceuta must be understood as one of these 'new' borders. While these 'new', rather viscous border-zones are the site of the intensification of governance, they are also the site of much contestation, and as such are spaces for the development of alternatives to state governance. The second part of the paper turns to evidence of such alternatives. Drawing on the work of the aforementioned thinkers and of Antonio Negri, I examine evidence of new radical, democratic 'movement' emerging out of situations of detention on Europe's borders. I focus on three phenomena that may indicate such movement in the broader border region of the Straits of Gibraltar:* solidarity between radical Church groups and immigration detainees, the work of "no-border" activists who organize anti-racist camps (the next to be held in early April 2005), and informal links developed between migrants of various national and ethnic origins to cope with the pressures of everyday life in detention. I suggest that each of these offers evidence of vital, democratic contestations over what governance ought to be, which start, almost paradoxically, from the bleak spaces created as part of an effort towards harmonized, European governance over frontiers.

Tunney, J. (Abertay) - Pragmatic Cosmopolitan Method on Law as an Approach to Borders, Spaces and Governance

For a lawyer, a border is a legal construct as is the idea of jurisdiction.  The analysis of such legal constructs would seem to require some appreciation of legal theory.  However it seems that in certain disciplines that discuss these issues, the legal theory is ignored save for a few cursory references to Kant or Rawls.  The EC/EU is a development on a long trajectory of legal theory.  Sometimes it seems that other disciplines ignore the pedigree of legal and jurisprudential debates in favour of grand explanations.  This may creates a difficulty for lawyers, in that they cannot contribute easily to the evolution of political and socio-political theory and it further justifies a degree of disciplinary exclusivity by a notoriously protectionist profession.  This may put a premium on justification by jurists (who want to contribute to other disciplines) of their use of discourse from other disciplines within law.  There is a reflexive relationship between the evolution of legal discourse and other contiguous disciplinary discourse.  It is submitted here that the use of a justificatory method of ‘pragmatic cosmopolitanism’ as developed by the author is a useful method in law that is capable of addressing the conundrum of contribution across non-porous disciplinary borders.  Such methods may allow for greater dialogue between disciplines as well as contributing towards the discourse on the evolution of allied concepts.  Accordingly this paper will start from the legal position and demonstrate how a pragmatic cosmopolitan method can help analyse the evolution of the conceptual base of the regulation of borders, spaces and governance while criticising non-law failure to look to law adequately in the evolution of these debates. 

Nuzzo, A. (USA) - Borders and centres: problems of European identity

The European Union offers an example of de-territorialization of politics. Traditionally, the principle of territoriality has affected the idea of national identity through its connection with state borders; territorial borders, in turn, have shaped perceptions of political responsibility as limited to shared nationality (one example: H. Arendt). This paper offers a philosophical—and particularly an ethical—perspective on the construction of European identity beyond the principle of territoriality, and reflects on the transformations of the notion of border (and the process of border-crossing) within the transnational framework of the EU. In this paper, I examine the transformations which the notion of border undergoes with regard, in particular, to the tension between physical space and cultural space. I explore the dialectic taking place, in this context, between local identities and European identity. I claim that the dissolution of national borders has left the need for another type of borders in relation to which local centers can be individuated and regional identities constituted. The notion—and indeed the reality of borders—cannot be easily dispensed with. People need borders to understand (and feel) their identity; identity, in turn, is the basis for the sense of belonging that motivates moral and political responsibility. I suggest that the political symbolism of national borders, which the EU seems to have overcome (increasingly also at the level of transnational security), will eventually yield to a new emphasis on the physical borders of geography and natural environment (the regionalism of people north and south of the Alps, for example; the argument here would run as follows: people who live in Alpine regions have to deal with a certain climate and geographic conditions; techniques, building forms, culinary habits, etc., that succeed in meeting those challenges give an identity to the place as a natural region, rather than as the home of a particular nationality or cultural group). In this framework, however, a new form of individual ethical and political responsibility is required if the transnational character of the EU ought to be a lived reality for people. Regional or local centers and their territoriality must be thought of as tools for integration within the overarching European system. Political responsibility must be developed ‘across borders’, as it were; must have transnational character; and should not be limited to shared national membership.

Okhomina, S. (Nigeria) - States without borders: Westphalia and 21st century Europe

In 1648, by the treaty of Westphalia, a system of rules in international law, establishing  the rights and duties of states was signed. Beyond ending the religious wars, the treaty establised the territorial state as the basis of the modern state system. Thus giving emphasis to international boundaries. Deriving from Westphalia, borders refer to the external boundary of states which have legal significance. Beyond this,  we need our knowledge of history and appreciation of context to understand borders. However, borders are significant because they serve as territorial organising principle for states. Despite this certainty of function, the meaning of borders has been ambiguous and contradictory. This ambiguity has been further compounded by the impact of globalization and contemporary historical change on territory. This impact and dynamics has resulted in ‘border change’ that not only transform existing border but also change the symbolic meanings and material functions of borders. This gives emphasis to the material and symbolic uses of borders. Such cases of border change is evidenced by the emergence of supra-state region as exemplified by the European union. But a lack of congruence between these border changes and the Westphalian principle creates a challenge for the modern nation state. Especially because they encourage the development of a ‘borderless’ global economy, new communication and information technology, and a transnational governance network that undermine state boundaries. It would appear that the protection and order that Westphalia was to establish is giving way to unstable economic fortunes. With the attendant consequence of lessening state capacity for law enforcement, and irrelevant border - lines. So that, Westphalian territoriality becomes problematic since territoriality focuses attention on borders. Political borders and by implication the treaty of Westphalia is undergoing a historic change in such a way that we  may indeed call to question and begin to rethink the future of political borders and territoriality.

Verbakel, E. (USA) – Frontier margins: Flanders Fields as territories of ambiguity

The topographic characteristics of Flanders Fields have played an important role in the historical evolution of land inhabitation. These border territories were once nothing but the bottom of the sea and throughout history they have returned to that condition frequently, either intentionally as part of military or economic strategies, or naturally in the course of climatic changes. In these processes, land was thought of as a negative space, as that space in which water is absent. Through these strategies of flooding both in war and in peace, an urban condition is created in which the continuous threat of the land’s disappearance reinforces the instability of the state border. The establishment of this state border between France and Flanders in the 17^th century was instable from the start because of the spatial incongruence between state and nation. Moreover, since the 17^th century, the European city has become a model for the national territory, whereby state borders can be compared to city limits beyond which the system of regulation is suspended. At the scale of the state however, there is no lawless nature on the other side, but another, similar system of regulation. This suggests a different spatial model in which nature (the other) is not fully separated from human nature (the self) and where pre- and post-polis partially coincide. From a division line, the border is widened to a twilight zone, a margin characterized by transition and ambiguity. At the same time this study offers a new framework for the understanding and redefinition of Foucault’s concept of heterotopia. The city’s periphery has historically been a scene for the establishment of such heterotopias (quarantines, hospitals, fairs), yet the process of urban dispersal has led to a domiciliation of this heterotopian edge. Flanders Fields, the area of study, is a territory in which this heterotopian principle not only changes scale, from city to state, but operates in a reciprocal relationship between the two sides of the border whereby the definition of heterotopia as the enclosure of the other no longer holds. With the erosion of the model of the polis, this land in which excess of power and resistance to power not only coexist but are interchangeable acquires a new significance.

Andornino, G. (LSE) - Europe on the edge of modernity: a meta-theoretical frame towards the understanding of the evolution in European spaces

This paper argues for the need to contextualise the process of rethinking of European spaces within a wider meta-theoetical frame, namely that of an unprecedented post-modern condition. The widespread sense of uncertainty originated by a bidirectional tendency of erosion of national sovereignty appears emphasized by a crisis of the intellectual community, as the need is felt for a transition from the pars destruens of the classical modern discourse to a less nihilistic approach.  The choice of distorted or obsolete interpretative frames, in fact, can lead to misperceptions and unjustified expectations as international events seem to suggest.  The author’s claim is that the slow, but progressive evolution of the European quasi-polity currently constitutes the most prominent example of a workable alternative to both idiosyncratic pluralism and ‘reactionary’ modernity.  The Old Continent appears to be successfully incorporating the idea according to which cultural-spatial fragmentation on one side and homogenization on the other ought not to be perceived as two contradictory thesis, but rather as two constitutive elements of global reality.  Its hesitant moves on the road of interest convergence, the over-abundance of institutional fora, the duplication of its bureaucracy and the promotion of political representation of localities are but examples of its policy of pluralism accommodation.  Simultaneously, it can be argued that elements of typically modern projectuality and universality remain traceable in the development of the European Union, respectively in its purpose of building a homogeneous methodology of cohabitation and in its policy of enlargement.  Accordingly, the author proposes an original, amended meta-theoretical framework for the understanding of Europe’s experience and challenges: that of a reasonable – rather than strictly rational – version of modernity.  It may be in such context that Europe once again leads the way towards a revised relationship between governance, territory and people, replacing the order we have grown to know with a new one, characterized by a wider horizon.

Maria Rovisco (Portugal) - European cultural space: new boundaries of inclusion and exclusion

The EU is being challenged by the need to cope with the increasing proximity and interpenetration of cultures as well as complex forms of cultural belonging. With the recent EU enlargement, which now includes an even greater plurality of ethnic groups, languages and religions, this challenge is taken further. Questions of space and identity are of the foremost importance for conceptualising the European cultural space. In a great deal of public discourse, particularly at the level of EU rhetoric, the claim of Europe as a space of common heritage and core values is being abandoned in favour of a conception of Europe as a space of open and negotiable boundaries. Conversely, the idea of a European cultural space is also about symbolic boundaries between 'us' and 'them'. Representations of Europe are part of the imaginary of many generations of individuals who have learnt to think of themselves as being European or not. In this context, Europe's symbolic others (e.g. Communism, Islam) offer a changing repertoire of meanings against which Europe takes its own significance. In this paper my aim is to demonstrate how the 2004 report On the Intellectual, Spiritual and Cultural Dimension of Europe reflects a struggle over the meaning of Europe in a time when the demands of the EU enlargement and increasing cultural diversity destabilize meanings in existing symbols and narratives. I show that the logic of closure of the European space, governing immigration policies and the negotiation of EU accession terms, is not consistent with the claim of Europe as a space of open cultural boundaries. While the logic of closure underlying the idea of the 'Fortress Europe' defines new boundaries of exclusion, the logic of opening underlying the new idea of the 'European cultural space' calls for more open and inclusive cultural communities.

Masso, A. (Estonia) - Social space in Estonia: towards a communicatively related community

The paper deals with mechanisms of social integration based on mutual understanding or communication in Estonian transitional society. Theoretical basis of paper includes both the terms of lifeworld (e.g. theories of Alfred Schütz, Thomas Luckmann and Jürgen Habermas) and term of modernization. The main assumption of the analysis is that changes in identity orientation and the way ones lifeworld is constructed could be one of the indicators for societal cohesion and for inter-regional coherence. By the agency of quantitative empirical analysis, we are going to find the answers to the next questions: (1) what describes the real and mediated contacts of different national groups in Estonia (e.g. in the form of mediated or personal contacts with different cultures, cultural openness, moving, adaptation with social change etc); (2) could the shift in state (and regional) borders lead uni-dimensionally to the change in previous lifeworld in the form of contacts and whether it also promotes the (trans)formation of cultural and regional allegiances into new forms.

Gatev, I. (Aston) -  Regions, borders and essentialised spaces: the geopolitical narratives invoked in discussions of Ukraine's external orientation

Geopolitics is a way of politically organising spaces where geography provides a conceptual frame of reference. Ukraine presents a rich site through which to examine the production of geopolitical narratives in which foreign policy preferences are conjoined with geographical location and specified in terms of regions. An important part of the literature on Ukraine postulates an overarching East-West divide in the country. Academic analyses of Ukrainian foreign policy are rife with assumptions about enduring cross-cultural differences existing between east and west Ukraine that have important political consequences for the country's external orientation, a fact allegedly borne out by the drama of the 2004 presidential elections. Ukraine - a kaleidoscope of cultures, identities and dialects - is starkly bifurcated in these analyses. Centuries of history are flattened out and presented in clear spatial terms, against the apparent diversity and heterogeneity of the Ukrainian past and present. The multiculturalism of the country's past and the complexity of its present politics are systematically reduced to a simple set of ahistorical essential antagonisms between East and West, Catholicism and Orthodoxy, Europe and Asia, and democracy and authoritarianism. The division of the country into discrete and mutually exclusive blocks of space and the projection of imaginary communities onto them results in a cartography too simplistic to capture the heterogeneity and irreducible complexity of Ukraine's political, economic and cultural geography. By generating false spatial dichotomies and spurious binary geographies, geopolitical narrations provide a flawed foundation upon which to base our understanding of Ukraine and often result in bad foreign policy conceptualisations and practices. Using critical geopolitics methodology, this paper will interrogate a number of academic and journalistic texts and analyses with a view to exposing the superficial, stereotypical and formulaic ways in which geopolitics reads the political map of Ukraine. By critically engaging with the discursive economy of geopolitical imaginations invoked in discussions of Ukraine's foreign policy orientation, the paper seeks to provide a richer understanding and a better conceptual grasp of the problems facing states like Ukraine in conditions of advanced modernity.

Hatziprokopiou, P. (Middlesex) - The Balkans as an emerging transnational space

This paper draws on the author’s research on migration from Balkan countries into Greece, which uncovered certain transnational elements in the patterns of mobility and immigrants’ integration. Findings are enriched with the contributions of other studies looking at Greek investment in the Balkans and additional evidence suggesting that the region is at present traversed by various kinds of flows. The paper attempts a synthesis of material from diverse sources in order to shed light to the migratory dynamics in the area.The Balkan space, fragmented after years of separate national histories and divided by nationalist conflicts, is gradually regaining the unified character it used to have in the years of the Ottoman Empire. In the early 21st century, and despite persisting problems, the Balkans can be pictured as an emerging transnational space, where a diversity of types of trans-border contact can be observed. This is the context whereby the processes of migration and immigrants’ integration in Greece should be located. It is importat to understand emerging trends, not only in respect to a potential generation of transnational practices and mobility among migrants in Greece, but also regarding and the long-term implications of trans-border contact and movements - especially in view of the coming EU enlargement.

Hein, C. (USA) -The polycentric EU headquarters' network after the 2004 enlargement

A polycentric headquarters is emerging in the European Union (EU), composed of three main seats-Brussels, Strasbourg, and Luxembourg- and seventeen other cities hosting decentralized agencies. Ten new member states that were part of Eastern Europe have joined the European Union (EU) in 2004. Their major cities position themselves to play a part in the emerging polycentric EU headquarters' network, challenging existing city hierarchies and spatial structures. The resulting regional rebalancing leads to important spatial changes and the need for comprehensive European, national, regional, and local land policies in accordance with the polycentric spatial development of the EU. As part of a larger investigation into the impact of the Eastern enlargement onto regional rebalancing in Europe, my research examines spatial and land policies made by the EU and the Council of Europe for the integration of the new member states and studies the policy initiatives undertaken by selected major cities in the new member states in order to establish themselves in the European city network as possible hosts to EU functions.

Calay, V. (Belgium) - Producing the capital of Europe: How tourism is building up a state-based territoriality

Since the 2001 report “Brussels, capital of Europe” presented by the Belgian Prime Minister and the President of the European Commission, Brussels seems to be officially seen as the « Capital of Europe » and not only the seat of some EU’s institutions. Consequently, this report symbolizes a new definition of Brussels that goes against the 1992 official agreement between EU’s member-states around the word “seat”, related mainly to international institutions. But how far is this common declaration recognized in the European public space and what is its significance there? Such an issue emphasises the potential debate around a territorial symbolic centre for the European Union. The paper analyzes how such an imaginary of the centre is already being produced at a multilevel scale. In this purpose, it underlines the crucial role played by tourism as an industry producing myths. This imaginary production of a « Capital of Europe » is studied through a comparison between the physical representations produced in EU’s three main seats (Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg) between 1999 and 2002. In this perspective, the empirical part of the paper is built on the analysis of the physical representations available at local (postcards, folders and gardens) and global (guidebooks) levels. The results show that tourism imaginary of the « Capital of Europe » is clearly monocentric and not network-based. Indeed, Brussels appears as the centre of Europe. This conclusion is reinforced by the analysis of the tour operators marketing that uses, for Brussels only, the image of « Capital of Europe » to introduce and sell the city as a city-trip destination. In a second part, this field-based analysis is linked to a theoretical framework relating tourism, territory and identity. Hence, by using cultural theories of landscape (Berque, 1993; Conan, 1997; Gagnon, 2003; Maccannel, 1992; Morley, 2000) studies in anthropology of tourism (Amirou, 1995 ; Maccannell, 1999; Selwyn, 1996) and theory of urbanism (Ascher, 2004; Chalas, 2004; Choay, 1980), the paper shows how the industry of tourism is able to play an important role by building EU’s territorial imaginary of the centre on the State model.

Magosse, R. (Belgium) - Imagining (the capital of) Europe?

The case of Brussels’ European quarter Host to the most important EU institutions, Brussels is currently considered to be the de facto capital of the EU. Officially however, there is no such thing as a ‘Euro-space’ or a ‘Euro-capital’. The core argument of the paper is that the EU’s ambivalent stance towards its materialization in space resulted in a ‘Euro-capital’ being built by market-driven logics reinforcing its already existing legitimacy deficit. The paper focuses on the ‘Quartier Européen’ in Brussels as one of the few places where -the otherwise very abstract- European integration project becomes tangible and visible. By drawing the political and historical context of the European integration in Brussels, I aim to show how the major ‘Euro-space’ emerged in an almost complete institutional void.  A complex concurrence of circumstances -the far-reaching federalisation and decentralisation of Belgium, the local institutional fragmentation and the vagueness of the political structure of the EU- was responsible for the fact that both the local and the European actors involved, never succeeded in constructing a governance body managing the integration of the EU-institutions in Brussels. As a result, there never was a vision or a narrative or whatsoever on Brussels European trajectory. Thereby a kind of ‘hegemony of the pragmatic’ was developed, thinking the EU’s presence in the amount of square meters offices needed. This left the door open for the emergence of so-called ‘unholy power coalitions’, leading the Brussels’ European quarter to symbolise the perverted consequences of laisser-faire, profit-maximalisation and greed. In that way, we could say that the European quarter almost coincidently expresses the underlying neo-functionalist and neo-liberal approach of the European project. In the sphere of marketing and communication, this had rather unpleasant consequences for both Brussels and the EU. On the one hand Brussels became in the eyes of many a synonym for the place where the ‘undemocratic’ and ‘bureaucratic’ EU-decisions are taken (‘Brussels has decided’). On the other hand the EU’s legitimacy problem is affirmed and strengthened in the European quarter where the planning procedures and the doubtful architecture seem to reflect in a masterly way the technocratic and elite-driven nature of the EU.

Stephenson, P. (European Commission) - Transnational cooperation zones and spatial visions in EU territorial planning

Developments in EU regional policy have led in recent years to the emergence of cooperation zones whereby, for thematic and pragmatic reasons Structural Funds are channelled to newly-recognised regions such as ‘North-West Europe’, ‘Baltic Sea’, ‘Alpine Space’ or ‘North Sea’. In the case of Interreg, DG REGIO’s main policy tool for sustainable territorial development, these artificially-demarcated and somewhat arbitrary transnational entities have begun to cement their own identity and institutional consensus. The emergence of these Interreg zones has, through the approval and implementation of projects with transnational partnerships led to the emergence of complex policy and thematic networks that bring together the public sector, research institutes, NGOs and private enterprise. In the case of Interreg IIIB, several of the zones have, through technical secretariats and specialist working groups begun to formulate strategic visions for the long-term development of their transnational spaces. These visions for territorial planning which have emerged since the guideline document, the European Spatial Development Perspective in 1999, are currently being revised as the policy priorities for the future programming period 2007-2013 are also being determined.

Guha, R. (India) - Europeanisation and regionalisation : a new spatial dynamism

This paper will study how European integration and regionalism have both altered the architecture of the European political order, creating new spaces above and below the nation state. Their combined effects have created new form of politics and a complex of three level interactions. In some parts of Europe territory has become a significant political cleavage and the regions have emerged as political spaces sustaining a district political agenda. European integration has enhanced  the importance of regions in the political and economic domains. In the economic domain, the opening of markets has produced a new territorial hierarchy. Politically, European integration has served to enhance the salience of regions. Competencies transferred to the European Union include matters in which regions have a direct interest. Regionalism seeks to use European as a source of political and economic resources, if necessary against the state itself. Most obviously this involves economic development issues, but Europeanisation has also been seen as a source of support for minority cultures and languages threatened within large states. Europeanisation and regionalisation are occurring at a time of profound changes in the functions and working of the European state. Factors include the advance of markets and deregulation and the strengthening of civil society in systems formerly dominated by strong states. The classic nation state was the locus of sovereignty and ultimate authority and the frame work of economic authority. These processes are increasingly divorced as economic changes escapes the control of states; policy making retreats  into complex networks which do not correspond to formal institutions; and new and rediscovered form of identity emerge at subnational and even the supranational lend. So European integration and regionalism are a two faced phenomenon. On the one hand they contribute to this process of desegregation of state functions. On the other hand, they also represent attempts to create new political spaces to try and capture control over state functions. However the nation state still remains the primary actor in the EU because for the regions the most important channel of influence is via national governments. But national politics too, is penetrated by European influences through law, bureaucratic contacts, role of the Commission in agenda setting and to a greater or lesser extent through regional influences. So we are witnessing today both an Europeanisation and a regionalisation of national policy making thereby creating a new dynamism in contemporary Europe

Celata, F. (Italy) - Cooperation, conflict and scale in Italian regional planning

The paper examines the relation between spaces, borders and governance in Italian regional planning. The aim is to define the limits of collaborative approaches and to draw a few critical elements for a geography of power in the network state. The rediscovering of territory as a fundamental political and strategic unit, has emphasized the need to “act locally” – transcending administrative borders – and the need to promote collaboration among local actors in the frame of decentralized and participatory decision processes, through the creation of forums, coalitions or partnerships. From a neo-institutional point of view, this should improve social capital and fill the space between “public” and “private”. From the perspective of deliberative democracy, the aim is to promote participation and consensus.Cooperation is seen as the goal of those forums, while it is a pre-condition for collaborative approaches to be applicable. The systematic analysis of case studies showsthat in conflictual contexts (win-lose policies), communicative processes can only give an institutional expression to an intrinsic conflict potential. As decision processes and the issues addressed become multi-scalar, conflicts arises not only between different social actors, but mostly between different scales. In cooperative and win-win contexts (as in the case of local development), governance and decentralization may result in the corporativization of policies at the local level, the proliferation of unrepresentative organizations and the production of discourses where the reference to the “territory” and the use of borders, is not pragmatic – as a mean to target and integrate strategies – but rather symbolical and rethorical. The mere regionalization of policies reproduces – at any scale – the same limits of centralized and technocratic approaches, while undermining (rather then increasing) coordination, continuity and integration. After being searching in vain for “ideal communities” or for the optimal scale of intervention, we should now understand that power - in a multi-scalar state - rather then being more or less “close” to citizens, is shared between different institutional levels. The analysis of contents and results of local governance reveals instead a new politic of scale and the growing tension between an aerial representation of political communities, and the devolution of collective responsibilities into networks with complex spatialities.

Lawn, M (Cardiff) - Soft Governance and the Learning Spaces of Europe  

The ‘European Space for Education’ is a term which is being used to describe the emergence of a multifaceted web of relations, in which commerce, technology based networks, associations, intergovernmental relations and competition all act to drive a European educational policy into existence. By its nature, as a transnational flow of information and people, and with heterogeneous forms, it is being created in sharp contrast to the older central roles played by organizations, statist jurisdictions, rigid borders and national sites. It is useful to regard it as a space which includes multiple spaces, built around function and interest, operating at different intensities and levels, occupying innumerable areas and spheres. It is very difficult to do justice to the idea of this Space, it is disorientating as much as ordering and yet it is crucial to the formation of the EU. It has not emerged suddenly but it has been transformed by the push for a competitive Europe through the Lisbon process. Initially, it appeared within a framework of a pedagogical space for European culture, with the purpose of creating a shared identity. Overlapping with this stage, a period of encouraging and enabling networks across education areas [research, evaluation, policy, school, adult and higher education] was heightened by the emergence of open coordination, which has accelerated the formation, pace and scope of this space. The older ‘Education Space’ has been restructured, certainly re-imagined, as a European Learning Space, and the means by which it is to be achieved have intensified. The lack of visibility of this strengthening policy space and its changing significance and definition has meant that a range of particular governing devices [networking, seminars, reviews, expert groups etc], described here as ‘soft governance’, have not been examined as a force in the Europeanization of education.

Daniele Conversi (LSE) - Rethinking European spaces after 9-11: the nationalism factor

Has the 'war on terror' aggravated and intensified ethnic strife, local wars and centre-periphery strains? How far has nationalism spread throughout the world since 9/11? Despite the proliferation of literature on both ethnic conflict and (more recently) on the 'war on terror', no major academic work has yet explored this relationship. This is the more surprising since many states have adopted the US-led 'war on terror' as a way to deal with internal dissent, and specifically with ethnic opposition. The paper assesses this relationship in quite straightforward terms: with only a few and maybe questionable exceptions, all states which have seized on the 'war on terror' as an opportunity to clamp-down on ethnic dissent have contributed to a formidable increase in internal instability. Their policies tend not only to expand and heighten existing conflicts with and among their ethnic minorities, but also, and more ominously, to provoke and mobilise previously passive ethnic groups. In Europe, this postulate is clearly applicable in Spain. Here, despite the decline in ETA's terrorist attacks, the gap between the central government and regional nationalists has increased since the end of Francoism (1975). The very unity of the Spanish state is presently at stake, with the Basque regional government practically advocating independence and the Catalan Generalitat ruled by a coalition which share similar aims, despite its more pragmatic commitment to act within the parameters of the Constitution. The main motive for this mounting support for radical nationalism is to be found in the legislative measures adopted by the Aznar neo-conservative regime under aegis of the 'war on terror'. Similar patterns have has been replicated in a variety of regions outside the European Community, in emerging democracies (Nigeria, Indonesia), authoritarian states (Russia in Chechnya) and totalitarian regimes (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, to which we may add perhaps China). The literature on ethnic conflict and nationalism studies recognizes that ethnonationalism tends most often to remain latent, instead of manifesting itself visibly, let alone violently. This paper will gather together some of the available evidence to argue that the 'war on terror' has brought about a widespread resurgence of nationalism, either in the form of state patriotism or reactive ethnic conflict.Theoretically, the paper draws on two major accounts or explanations of nationalism: firstly, the claim that ethnic conflict is a response to state intrusion. This claim should be conceived as a 'meta-theory' (Ritzer 2005), rather than as a cohesive theory. Secondly, the claim that political illegitimacy accounts for the very existence of nationalism and ethnic conflict (Connor 2004). The 'war on terror' has been normally carried out by the state which, acting within an extra-sovereign context (the US model framework), has failed to achieve the necessary legitimacy quorum, particularly needed in minority areas. For instance, the legitimacy of Aznar's government has been jeopardized by his compliance to decisions emanating from outside Spain's sovereign space. It therefore attempted to compensate for this illegitimacy by stressing state patriotism, which, in turn, galvanized regional nationalist movements.

Meinhof, U.H. (Southampton) - Re-imagining Transnational Europe

My paper takes as its departure the thinking behind two interrelating but differently focused European research projects which in their alternative ways suggest contradictory experiences and visions of a transnational Europe and its geopolitical and virtual borders. One, a Europe made up of a conglomeration of  nations under the umbrella of the European Union, with more or less free access across its EU-internal,  and a clear demarcation outwards against its external borders. Transnational Europe here looks inwards across its different national constituents and outwards to its other nation-state neighbours. Any perceived challenge to the national arises from the embrace of a larger but nevertheless geographically and institutionally clearly definable entity, and is politically activated through institutional processes such as votes for or against accession, for or against the European Institution, for or against joining the Schengen agreement of free movement or the Euro currency. Two, a Europe imagined through  its metropolitan  cities . Here the experience of  the national is more ambivalent and fluid. On the one hand, cities represent spaces separated by a myriad of internal  border-lines which isolate, segregate and exclude people without any obvious institutionalisation of boundaries .At the same time cities are nodes and hubs for criss-crossing networks of people from anywhere in the world, which seem to undercut and challenge the nation  by the cultural diversity they represent or by the ‘import’ of another nation or ethnicity which resists easy integration into either the national or supra-national European model  Here the challenge to the national and the supra-national arises from much more diffuse, mobile and contradictory sources which are difficult to pin down. Having introduced these two projects my paper will problematise this dichotomy by drawing on case studies which we conducted a) with three generation families living in (formerly)  highly conflictual borders drawn and redrawn as the result of the Second World War and since, which affected the national borders between East and West and b) migrants in capital cities in Europe. These will  suggest, for example,  the following insights into the ways in which national or transnational identities are intertwined. On the one hand, the border project which seemingly confirms the strength of national identity in the processes of outgrouping and stereotyping of other nationals across its borders nevertheless showed that identity construction is much more flexible than the national framework suggests. Rather, the national is evoked under certain contextual conditions, especially on external borders where otherness is symbolically and materially  represented and confirmed in a national frame, but is replaced by other forms of out-grouping in different contexts. On the other hand, the city spaces project which seems to depart entirely  from nationally or ethnically defined identification patterns, nevertheless shows the vibrancy of nationally and/or ethnically defined networks which combine cosmopolitan and communitarian lifestyles. My paper will suggest a new research agenda whereby external and internal border and their transgression need to be seen as a dialectic rather than a contrast.

Higate, P. and Henry, M. (Bristol) - Space, place, militarization and security on the island of Cyprus

Scholars of space and place have largely failed to critically engage with the ideology of militarism and the associated process of militarisation (cf. Woodward, 2004). This is surprising given that many societies – against the backdrop of global insecurity - have become increasingly militarised. In this paper, we use the lens of space and place to critically explore the links between militarisation and security with a focus on the micro-level on the heavily militarised island of Cyprus. We start by describing how the island has been divided into a number of discrete militarised and demilitarised zones. These include: the British Sovereign Base Areas (SBAs), areas deemed ‘Out of Bounds’ (OoB) for members of the British armed forces, the Greek-Cypriot enclaves in the north, and the space of the Buffer Zone that divides the island. Drawing on a small number of qualitative face-to-face in-depth interviews with military personnel (both United Nations and regular British troops), and members of both Cypriot communities, we tentatively explore the links between militarisation and security. Our aim is to understand better the ways in which militarised/demilitarised spaces configure the everyday experience of security for individuals living on a divided island. Our broad findings suggest that Turkish Cypriots may look to their large standing army for security, whilst Greek-Cypriots look to the Buffer Zone and the UN troops within this space as agents of their security. We conclude by suggesting that spaces of militarization/demilitarisation on the island are in a state of flux on account of the recent accession of the south to the EU, and the potential future accession of the north.

Rankin, M. (Australia) - Democracy and violence:  reconfiguring the territoriality of terror in Europe

In this paper, I will explore the complex relationship between democracy and violence in the contemporary European context.   As Europe continues to reconcile the nexus between liberalism and the forces of globalisation I challenge the assumption that Europe is prepared to defend democratic values past their own borders.   Although the Madrid bombing represented an assault on European liberalism and was motivated by fundamentalists using violence to contain democratic values, it also revealed that terrorism is increasingly presaged by non-state actors unconstrained by state territory.   I argue that Europe must rethink the geopolitical parameters of defending democracy beyond the ‘European Union’ to include both state and non-state actors globally.   Moreover that this requires greater commitment to understanding the origins of violence and the conflicts that may motivate organised violence. I conclude that Europe fails to acknowledge the defining contradictions of maintaining its own democracies, while neglecting the seeds of violence that exists in tyrannical states.

Wagner, F.P. (Bulgaria) - “Development” and “security” in the creation of a post-Communist European space: Europe’s new Scylla and Charybdis?

With the fall of communism across Eastern Europe in 1989 and the official end of the Soviet Union in 1991, the last conceptual, political, societal and cultural dam against global and European integration and interdependence finally appeared to have broken. Over the past years, however, it has become increasingly clear that the processes of global and European re-construction in the wake of the fall of communism are to a significant extent about forging spaces, places, and relations via the creation of ideational and material borders or identity-markers: closing in and closing off, letting in and keeping out. What guides, indeed determines this process of re-borderization and identity-formation? How are the new borders, the new identity-spaces of post-communist Europe constructed? Where do Europe’s new internal and external borders lie? A possible answer to the above questions, and the one that comes readily, all-too-readily, to mind is to divide the European space into everything and everyone belonging, actually and potentially, to the European Union and the rest of all those places, spaces, peoples that do not and will never belong to the EU. Yet as the case of Turkey, the remaining cases of the former Yugoslavia, the Euro-zone, the Schengen-zone, and the EU-strategies associated with a “wider Europe,” the Euro-Mediterranean partnership, etc. demonstrate, the criterion of EU-membership per se is not sufficient to determine how the post-communist European space is being re-constructed. The two most important identity-markers or notions in the construction of a post-communist European space, I will argue in this paper, are “development” and “security.” Their inter-relation and inter-action define in a fundamental manner the European project today. As I will show, “development” and “security” have replaced the Cold War European geographical borderlines and identity-markers of “West” and “East,” they are redefining the meaning of “North” and “South,” and they relate the historical-cultural memory-markers of a “European identity” to the general condition of openness and spatial indeterminacy (the vacuum) that the fall of communism left behind. Last but not least, as will be seen, it is the inter-relation and inter-action between “development” and “security” that underlies the processes of “integration” and “enlargement” associated with the EU. As the sub-title of the proposed paper/talk already indicates, I take the identity-markers of “development” and “security” and their logics in the creation of a post-communist European space to be highly problematic. What is at issue in the re-creation of a post-communist European space in this sense is for the EU (and beyond) to see both as rather inter-dependent and to forge policies accordingly instead of trading one, development, for the other, security.

Dai, X. (Hull) - The Impact of transnational policy spaces upon European governance in the information age

The European Commission’s recent Governance White Paper claims that good governance depends critically on the EU institutions’ ability to deliver information by ‘making use of networks’ and the aim of European public policy should be to create a ‘transnational space’ where European citizens from different countries ‘can discuss what they perceive as being the important challenges for the Union’ (European Commission, 2001). In addition to the use of new ICTs (Information and Communications Technologies) by individual local and regional authorities for improving governance at the local and regional level, the same tools are also used by sub-national authorities to communicate and collaborate with each other across geographical and national boundaries, thus creating transnational or trans-European networks. Whilst transnaitonal networking within the European research and development community is not new, the emergence of a number of public sector networks at the tran-European scale does coincide with the launch of the European Information Society in the early 1990s. Transnational networking involving sub-national public authorities has provided new platforms for the European policy community, in particular the European Commission, to create and experiment new modes governance in the information age. Through case studies of three large-scale information society networks, i.e., TeleCities (European network of cities), ELANET (European Local Authorities’ Telematic Network) and eris@ (European Regional Information Society Association), this paper aims to investigate the dynamics of the new transnational policy spaces and their impact upon the process and structure of European governance. It is argued in this paper that the new transnational policy spaces have provided an opportunity for European regional and local authorities to be more directly involved in European policymaking. Meantime, the emerging transnational spaces of policy learning and policy making in Europe would require, among others, a new mindset to understand about the changing pattern of European governance in the information age, i.e., from a largely hierarchical power structure to increasingly a networked governance structure and from a territorially-based mode of governance to an increasingly deterritorialised or transnational mode.

Schmidt, K. (Germany) - Perforating borders: transnational social spaces between Poland and Germany

The interest of our research is aimed on a phenomenon of migration towards the West, which has developed between Eastern and Central European countries since the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Through pendulary migration, also at long range, people find a possibility to improve their economic and social situation. This presentation shows from geographical and sociological perspective how this “movement” crosses the border and influences a political path of a country from bottom up. With the term "transnational migration" a special type of migration is discussed questioning an implicit principle of the classical migration research. Until the nineties the fact was accepted that an international migration is a unique, unidirectional and related to an individual, rare procedure. During the last decade the insight arose that groups of migrants realize social interactions in both, the receiving country and in the country of origin. Thus, an identity is developed, which can be designated as transnational, and is partially associated with both countries. For the case of research about the migratory entwinement space Germany - Poland, presented here, the concept of the "transnational social space" is applied, which regards migrants within new social spaces with their own institutions and identities across societal and national systems. The key term, which is applied here to explain this phenomenon, is the social capital, which can be used by the participants, in order to minimize the risks of the migration. Because there is a large number of Polish temporary migrants assumed in the shadow economy, an estimation speaks of up to 500 thousand Polish workers in this legally and statistically grey area, qualitative methods of exploration are favoured. A whole set of factors can be considered as condition for the swell up of the numbers of these pendulary migrant: historical ties set up over centuries, recent technological developments like modern passenger transport system, political events or socio-economic needs of the people.

Hess, S. (Germany) - EU-Governance as reflexive biopolitisation of Politics? A case-study on the Europeanization of migration policies in Turkey

With the contract of Amsterdam in 1999 a development has been kicked off, which can be characterised as Europeanisation of migration and border policies – once located at the core of national sovereignty and identity. Critical scholars speak of an externalisation and deterritorialization of border-policies and hence of state sovereignty. They also demonstrate how these policies produce a new, multiple hierarchized and fragmented European space. In our ethnographical research we focused on the  technologies and practices of  implementation of the EU-border and migration policies in Turkey in the context of its pre-accession process. We can show how the EU especially succeeded its aims by applying a whole range of governance practices - including network-governance, the NGOisation of politics as well as a specific knowledge production, and the production of specific social actors and practices. This not only  reconstructs the social and political space of Turkey  but the whole notion of  migration, mobility and politics which we analyse as a reflexive biopolitisation.

Huggins, R. (Oxford Brookes) - European framing of global threat: the management/regulation of cross-border flows in drugs

Since the mid-1980s, the member states of the European Union have intensified cooperation on measures designed to restrict the production, movement, distribution and consumption of illegal drugs in the European area. Since 1990, European Councils have adopted a variety of action plans and programmes to provide a comprehensive response to this phenomenon  including the development of a more comprehensive anti-drug strategy in the form of five year action plans (1995-1999, 2000-2004). In addition a number of institutional developments have taken place (for example the setting up of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA),  the development of the Europol Drugs Unit (replaced in July 1999 by Europol) which have been seen as ways of increasing Member States' cooperation and effectiveness in relation to activity related to illegal drug distribution and use. This paper will explore the development of European Union organisational, institutional and policy and policy prescriptions related to the control and prevention of the production, movement, distribution and consumption of illegal drugs in the European area.  The paper will examine the development of EU policy and institutional frameworks – set within the context of global and transnational regulation and treaty obligations – and will map significant developments which have taken place in recent years. In doing so the paper will offer a reading of transnational policy, operation and institutional development and an example of transnational responses to key security, criminal justice and policing issues in a globalising world.

Jean-Michel Lafleur (Belgium) - Transnational Europe and Transnational migration : conflicting views on identity ?

Transnationalism, along with globalization, is a term that has been increasingly used in the political science, international relations and sociology literature of the last decade. However, this word covers a great variety of situations. On the EU territory, transnationalism has at least two meanings. It can refer to 1) cooperation between businesses or organisations based in more than one EU country (which corresponds roughly to the EU's stance on transnationalism, 2) the social, political or economic ties that migrants sustain overtime across various nation-states. This second definition (which for a long time was solely used in American academics circles) is gaining importance in today's research on migration in the EU. It shares a central characteristic with the first definition : the actor's capacity to create ties across several nation-states. Yet, the effects of those ties varies significantly according to the definition. Whereas transnational corporations are said to contribute to a weakening of the Nation-state, I will demonstrate that transnational migrant activities can lead to the opposite effect. Transnational migrant entrepreneurs, remittances senders or migrants who are politically active in the homeland often produce strong reactions on the part of the Nation-state. The interest of this debate is not solely definitional. The lack of conceptual clarity can have very concrete implications for the future of identities in Europe. While the EU's vision of transnationalism is compatible with a supranational model of citizenship, transnational migration gave birth to a new kind of migrants with additional rights within various national spaces both inside and outside the EU. For years, scholars have underlined the discriminating effect of EU citizenship on third-country nationals. I will show that one of the possible answer provided by migrants is a form of transnational ties that differs from the one initiated by the EU.

Stevenson, N. (Nottingham) European Cosmopolitanism or Neo-Liberalism? : Questions of Identity, Media and Education

The power to define future definition of 'Europe' is key to contemporary debates. In this respect, there are essentially two different versions of Europe. The first is a neo-liberal Europe defined by free trade and a loose association of nation-states. The idea of Europe offered here is not one of citizenship, but of consumption, indifference and market competition. The second offers a more cosmopolitan understanding of Europe that is built upon human rights, democracy, political participation and solidarity amongst strangers. This battle of ideas has become increasingly important given America's recent turn to the Right. Key to which version of Europe will dominate our collective futures are the practices and definitions of culture. In this respect, the paper looks at the potential role that could be played by the mass media and the education system in seeking to foster more cosmopolitan forms of understanding. What kinds of media and education systems are required to enhance cosmopolitan definitions and understandings? Does liberalism provide an adequate response to neo-liberalism? How might Europe build active and educated public spheres in the face of the threat posed by neo-liberalism? Does Europe's own past provide any guidance as to the principles upon which these more engaged public spaces might be built? It is to these important questions that this paper turns.

Molnar, J. (Queens, Belfast)- Border effects on population: Ireland’s border and Hungary’s borders as examples

This paper discusses some of the effects of state borders in Europe using examples from the Hungarian-Austrian, Hungarian-Slovakian, Hungarian-Ukrainian borderlands and the Northern Ireland-Republic of Ireland border region. The study is based on questionnaire surveys and statistical data analysis. If we focus on population change in borderlands, we often find that if the border acts as a barrier and border-crossing is difficult or impossible, the population starts to decrease on both sides of the border. The main outcome is high levels of migration on both sides of the border. But in other cases, the like Hungarian-Slovakian and Hungarian-Ukrainian borderlands on the non-Hungarian sides, the population was increasing up to 2001, while on the Hungarian sides there has been population decrease, especially on the Hungarian side of the Hungarian-Slovakian border. It was very difficult to get census or other data from Ukraine, and the data from Slovakia does not cover fertility, mortality or migration. However, in these countries the high rates of the population growth may have been mainly due to migration and policies in both these countries which aim to deduce the relative size of the ethnic Hungarian minority population along the border with Hungary. When physical obstacles are removed from the borderlands, and the economic and political situation improves, we can see that life is not significantly changed in those areas. Only in the Hungarian-Austrian borderland research area are the processes changed much, both in terms of society and in the economy as well, especially on the Hungarian side of this borderland. The population is increasing in this area because of high levels of selective migration within Hungary. The young and qualified people move in. In the Northern Ireland-Republic of Ireland borderland research area, after 10 years of paramilitary cease-fires the people feel more peaceful, but the proportion of qualified people is less than the norm for Northern Ireland. The apprehension of paramilitary activity has an effect on people’s mobility.

Beasley, A. (USA) -  Rethinking EU citizenship for third country nationals

The revolutionary potential of the idea of EU citizenship remains limited by the fact that today, citizenship is still tied firmly to traditional policies codified by EU member states. As stated in Article 8, Part I, Title II of the Constitution, EU citizenship is “additional to national citizenship,” so it benefits only those who are already recognized as citizens of their home countries. This excludes millions who are living in Europe as Third Country Nationals (TCNs), persons who have resided in EU member states for several years, but have not yet been granted full citizenship status by their national governments. At stake in the debates over the status of TCNs is whether the EU experiment turns out to entail fundamental revisions of the traditional conception of citizenship, or whether the experiment results in more cosmetic political change. The propose paper explores an argument formation that cuts to the core of these issues – the advocacy campaign to include TCNs as EU citizens. Some advocates of TCN inclusion argue that long-term residents deserve EU citizenship status because of two interlocking reasons. First, since TCNs are already socially integrated into their communities, they are able to participate as deliberative agents in community decision-making. Second, the EU should be conceived as a deliberative community, in which all residents are given an equal opportunity to practice citizenship. I interrogate the fundamental assumptions of a post-national discourse model of EU citizenship, investigate the rhetorical strategies deployed by advocates of that model, and consider the counter-arguments made against proposals for a post-national discourse model of EU citizenship.

Vollaard, J.P. (Netherlands) -  Europeanisation and political territoriality

What is the impact of European integration on the territorial organisation of political authority in the European Union (EU) and its Member States? The Peace Treaties of Westphalia (1648) are usually seen as starting point for a Europe increasingly ordered by state territoriality, featuring mutually exclusive sovereign entities having clearly demarcated territories. The territorial closure of states has been essential to the endurable development of security, democracy and welfare systems in Europe. How has European integration changed political territoriality, and its most important attribute: the state? Does the phrase ‘Europe without frontiers’ hold any truth? What are the underlying mechanisms and dynamics of the continuation and transformation of (territorial) political authority in Europe? Answering such questions on Europeanisation of (territorial) governance requires theoretical notions to explain changing political territoriality in general, and in the European Union in particular. Although territoriality has been fundamental to organising sovereignty, theorising about the link between changing territoriality and legitimacy has been relatively neglected in political science. It is for this reason that Miles Kahler considers territoriality as one of the central issues on the research agenda on the state in a 2002 state-of-the-art contribution. Thus far, Stein Rokkan was one of the few social scientists attempting to theorise on polity-formation and political territoriality. Stefano Bartolini and Peter Flora have begun to prove that Rokkan does provide theoretical building blocks to explore processes of re-territorialisation in the European Union. The proposed paper aims at explaining the impact of European integration on political territoriality based on Rokkanian ideas concerning the continuous processes of boundary-building on the one side, and internal (re)structuring of national states, sub-state regions and the Euro-polity on the other. The case of cross-border patient mobility in the Netherlands and Flanders will be used to illustrate the connection between territoriality, borders and health governance in a Rokkanian perspective.

Velicu, I. (Romania) - Regional integration versus global disenfranchisement: enhancing the EU as an international democratic actor

While politics is, in post-Westphalian times less exclusively a matter of national concern, the development of democracy beyond the nation-state context is still a major challenge and, thus, a relevant topic for research. Globalization makes politics less transparent and empowers actors who are not democratically accountable at the expense of those who are. Moreover, this new form of disenfranchisement is less clearly perceived by people in the context of an increasingly multi-layered system of governance as there is widespread ignorance with respect to who decides what, when and how. Where and how we are politically represented? This paper attempts to find out whether regional integration (particularly after the model of the European Union) can counteract the trend of an increasing democratic deficit in the context of transnational governance by bringing politics closer to the people and creating new mechanisms of accountability and democratic control. Thus my main research question is: To what extent can regional integration counteract the negative contribution of globalization to the democratic deficit worldwide? My method of inquiry is a case study of the European Union as a model of regional integration. I will examine the continuous EU democratization process and the extent to which the EU has managed to evolve as a democratic entity and as a “laboratory” for supra-state democratic governance whose experiences might offer some guidance for a democratization of transnational governance more generally. Of course, the actual and current European Union institutions are not ideal model democratic structures that should be uncritically imitated. The importance of this idea lies of seriously taking into account regional integration arrangement (such as the EU) not just as ‘other’ types of supra-state international organizations but as potential mediators between global (transnational) and national structures of governance. However, the focus will be placed on those current and latent forces and capabilities that may eventually lead to its increased democratization. The question to be answered remains: To what extent can other regional settings imitate the EU model?

Wright, S. (UEA) - A virtual European public sphere? The Futurum Discussion Forum: legitimation through communication?

The need for a transnational space which brings civil society closer to European Union decision-making is widely recognised. As Eriksen (2004: 29-30) argues: ‘What hampers democracy at the European level today is the lack of a common, law-based identification and the possibility for transnational discourse – a single European space – in which Antonio in Sicily, Judith in Germany and Bosse in Sweden can take part in a discussion with Roberto and Julia in Spain on the same topics at the same time.’ This paper argues that such a virtual European space has been created, in which people from a range of countries, and in a range of languages, participate in (predominantly) high quality debate. This “space” is an online discussion forum hosted on the Futurum website Although the rhetoric was about giving influence to civil society, the forum was not used to inform decisions. This raises an important question for this conference: How do we conceptualise this institutionalised (and thus arguably “strong”) public sphere, when its role is akin to a general public sphere? This paper develops a conceptual model which takes account of both the general and strong public sphere literature, arguing that although it is both institutionalised and general (i.e. open), considerable democratic good can still derived from the citizen-to-citizen debate. Given that its function is predominantly citizen-to-citizen debate, the discursive quality of the debate (and the people who participate) will be quantitatively and qualitatively analysed to see whether this space has become a meaningful arena for public debate.

Edwards, S. (Sussex) - Explaining enlargement: Space, governance and identity

The Enlargement that occurred in May 2004 saw the official space enlarge to encompass the countries of east and central Europe as well as the Mediterranean countries of Malta and Cyprus. It is the communication of this event that is the focus of this paper. Concentrating upon the 'public' publications of the European institutions of the Parliament and Commission, it asks how, in attempts to explain Enlargement to the EUropean public constructions of European space and identity were linked to ideas about the nature and purpose of the EUropean project. It will be argued that, in 'explaining' Enlargement, particular constructions and narratives of European space and place were combined with those of European governance to legitimise both the rationale of enlargement and more fundamentally, the process of European integration itself.

Shahin, J - eEurope: a new way of governing the EU?

In recent years, one of the most interesting aspects of the EU's development has taken place in the sphere of the Information Society. This paper will examine the eEurope initiative (1999- ), which has absorbed almost all of the European Commission's efforts towards building a European Information Society. Although the Information Society provides a virtual, rather than a real space for European politics to be constructed, the impact of policy is tangible. Furthermore, the European Commission has used this policy area to construct and modify different approaches to policy formulation, implementation, and monitoring. This construction of a European political sphere was due to a policy vacuum at the national level in the Information Society. The European Commission was glad to fill this with initiatives and recommendations concerning a European approach to building an Information Society. The precise manner in which it chose to do that is a topic that will be raised in this paper. Fundamentally, the European Commission chose, through the eEurope initiative, not to adhere to an intergovernmental or supranational model of governance, but to create a hybrid model which recognised both the importance of national governments and the drive (a constructed 'necessity') for European-level action. This Open Method of Coordination (OMC) has had great consequences for the implementation of policies in the field of the Information Society at the European level. Many observers have celebrated OMC as a new mode of governance that overcomes the paradox apparent in the supranational-intergovernmental debate on EU integration. This paper suggests that OMC merely bypasses the question and thus does not attempt to answer the underlying debate. OMC is identified as a central mode of governance for an emerging EU polity despite this limitation. Its application in the field of the Information Society, as in other fields, has been most successful. In terms of institutional development, OMC has provided the EU's organs with many opportunities for participation in policy areas where a European 'perspective' is necessary but limited by intergovernmentally-agreed treaties. In this way, OMC has fuelled the dynamics of Europeanization by providing a new tool and model for EU governance.

Rosamond, B. (Warwick) The social construction of the European Economy since 1957

The idea of an extant European economy populated by discernible European market actors is a commonplace and highly discernible theme within EU policy discourse. The assertion of Europe as a bounded, empirical economic space slips into claims about the interets of European economic subjects (firms, consumers etc) and bolsters the expression of ideas about (a) European un/competitiveness and (b) the challenges faced by such a bounded European market order in the face of globalisation. Conventionally the creation of this market/order economy is debated in broadly rationalist vocabulary along the following lines. One position sees the putative/actually existing European economy as the consequence of self-interested strategic manoeuvring by a cluster of non-state forces (market actors seeking to populate transnational space in alliance with supranational agents such as the European Commission and the European Court of Justice). The alternative sees market integration as state led. In this second account supranational institutions become the secondary agents of member-state principals. In both cases, the role of ideas is either marginalised or rendered epiphenomenal. This paper builds on earlier work (notably Rosamond, 2002) to argue for the treatment of the 'European economy' as an imagined and socially constructed phenomenon. It will trace the evolution of discourses about the 'European economy' as a future-oriented framing device that allows actors to make claims about (a) the utility of supranational economic governance and (b) the policy and regulatory substance/modality of that economic governance. The paper will explore the extent to which the history of European economic integration has been characterised by contested models of the 'European economy' and examines whether there is continuity in the patterns of narration about Europe as an economic space.

Maria Rovisco (Portugal) - European cultural space: new boundaries of inclusion and exclusion

The EU is being challenged by the need to cope with the increasing proximity and interpenetration of cultures as well as complex forms of cultural belonging. With the recent EU enlargement, which now includes an even greater plurality of ethnic groups, languages and religions, this challenge is taken further. Questions of space and identity are of the foremost importance for conceptualising the European cultural space.  In a great deal of public discourse, particularly at the level of EU rhetoric, the claim of Europe as a space of common heritage and core values is being abandoned in favour of a conception of Europe as a space of open and negotiable boundaries. Conversely, the idea of a European cultural space is also about symbolic boundaries between 'us' and 'them'. Representations of Europe are part of the imaginary of many generations of individuals who have learnt to think of themselves as being European or not. In this context, Europe's symbolic others (e.g. Communism, Islam) offer a changing repertoire of meanings against which Europe takes its own significance. In this paper my aim is to demonstrate how the 2004 report On the Intellectual, Spiritual and Cultural Dimension of Europe reflects a struggle over the meaning of Europe in a time when the demands of the EU enlargement and increasing cultural diversity destabilize meanings in existing symbols and narratives. I show that the logic of closure of the European space, governing immigration policies and the negotiation of EU accession terms, is not consistent with the claim of Europe as a space of open cultural boundaries. While the logic of closure underlying the idea of the 'Fortress Europe' defines new boundaries of exclusion, the logic of opening underlying the new idea of the 'European cultural space' calls for more open and inclusive cultural communities.

Richardson, T. ( Sheffield) - Territorial cohesion and frictionless mobility: persuasive and incoherent stories in the making of European space

Europeanisation is often conceptualised through institutional theories which focus primarily on changing policy and governance structures. This paper seeks to support a broadening of the conceptualisation of Europeanisation, by moving from this type of institutional analysis into analysis of the content of policy, and from there into a discussion of the ways that Europe is changing (or may change) as a consequence of such policies. This is operationalised here by exploring the spatial dimensions of Europeanisation – asking questions such as ‘is there an EU spatial project, and if so what sorts of spaces and places does it seek to create?’ Perspectives from new-institutionalist work in the field of planning and political geography are useful, which seek to engage with the spatiality of policies and political projects. The further step is to introduce a consideration of value, which appears to be a missing component of Europeanisation debates, despite the politically cogent nature of this field of research. In this way it becomes at least possible to ask who stands likely to gain or lose from particular, planned, European futures. These perspectives are used to critique the policy idea of territorial cohesion, which is central to current debates about EU spatial futures. How could it work? What is a cohesive European territory? These questions are addressed by examining the attempt to create a frictionless, seamless, and harmonious European space, where new mobility infrastructures are called for to support the processes of political and economic integration and enlargement. In particular, attention is paid to the role of spatial policy in mediating apparently contradictory policy ideas, as threats of dysfunctional Europe – images of congested arteries, network failure, and destabilised economies - are resolved by the smoothing discourse of territorial cohesion. This leads to discussion about the purpose and impact of EU spatial intervention, and the implications for multi-scalar and bordered European spaces. It is argued that despite smooth policy discourse, territorial cohesion is being pursued incoherently across levels of governance and across different territories, and that (according to the available research) current strategies are likely to create and reinforce multi-scalar patterns of exclusion across the EU. It may be that EU space is establishing new internal borders, defined not by the edges of governance, but by rhetorical or actual cohesive territories.

Kramsch, O.T. (Nijmegen) - Transboundary Governmentality on Europe’s Postcolonial Edge: the Cypriot Green Line

Since the early 1990’s the European Commission has designated its former internal political borderlands as self-styled ‘laboratories of European integration’.  Within Europe’s cross-border regions (or euregios), it is hoped that novel patterns of governance may be re-territorialized in such a way as to reconcile the contradictory demands of ‘borderless’ liberal market efficiency with Jean Monnet’s call to bring Europe democratically ‘ever closer’ to the citizens of its constituent member states.  In actuality, however, practices of regionalized transboundary governmentality within the emergent EU polity demonstrate authoritarian and decidedly undemocratic features, elements of which are clearly on display vis a vis Europe’s management of its future external boundary.  Here, within the ‘contact zones’ overlapping onto Europe’s ironically denotated ‘Ring of Friends’, norms and forms of cross-border rule are being mobilized which resonate uneasily with an older colonial legacy linking Europe with its Orientalized ‘Other’. Drawing upon recent EU-funded field-work both within the European Commission bureaucracy and on the island of Cyprus, I attempt to excavate how the spatialities of ongoing socio-economic inequality and bi-communal separation between Greek and Turkish-Cypriot communities are reinforced by purportedly well-meaning EU administrators, whose actions are overlain upon a complex legacy of conflict and struggle with roots in the period of a truncated Cypriot de-colonization, independence and festering post-colonial division. Adopting a social-constructivist analytical lens to examine the production and reproduction of exclusionary relations between the two communities as they pertain to everyday perceptions of the Cypriot Green Line, I further situate them within a broader European discourse pertaining to Turkey’s recently approved accession negotiations with the EU.  In so doing, and in the spirit of the late Edward Said, I seek to reveal the spatial as well as temporal coordinates of a ‘contrapuntal geography’ shaping a vitally contemporary postcolonial European borderland.