Integration De-scaled. Symbolic Manifestations of Cross-border and European Integration in Border Twin Towns

ABSTRACT

Cross-border cooperation nowadays plays a crucial role in Europe and is very attractive for the local authorities of border units and for border communities. It is especially visible in border twin towns—settlements located directly on a state border, and having a similar partner on the other side. This article aims at filling a gap that exists in border studies by answering the question of how the idea of European integration and cross-border integration is symbolically manifested in the border relations of these towns, and how border territorial units employ this in their development strategies, by scale change. The research is conducted in the context of collective efficacy theory, with symbols representing specific ideas considered to be explanatory elements belonging to two variables stimulating change: spatial dynamic and supportive institutions. It is asserted that border conflict and cooperation legacies frame the context for symbolic policies, alongside the duration of EU membership. The assumptions are verified against actual objects in public spaces, as well as in non-material symbols. This leads to the identification of three models of cross-border symbolism and also of the phenomenon of border re-demarcation.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The understandability of the European integration process refers here to a wide debate, especially among scholars researching the European Union, but also among politicians and leaders of public opinion. Its main argument is that the growing complexity of the integration process (numerous institutions located in remote Brussels together with the complicated legal system originating from the EU) made it indistinct and fuzzy, and not clear in the eyes of many Europeans. This results, on the one hand, in growing Euro-skeptic attitudes, and on the other in a political postulate of overcoming the EU’s democratic deficit by involving common Europeans in the integration project.

2 Both boundaries and borders are used in this text as synonyms in their meaning related to lines separating state territories, unless indicated otherwise. Additionally, the concept of the frontier is employed, meaning a space where influences, cultures, values, and so on, of neighboring structures mix (Kristof 1959; Walters 2004, 687–688; Browning and Joenniemi 2008, 529). Together with the Peace of Westphalia and the process of creating the nation-state in Europe, frontiers were replaced with boundaries, determining “more or less strict territorial limits” (Evans and Newnham 1998, 185) and separating exclusive sovereignties (O’Dowd and Wilson 2002, 8).