Periodic Reporting for period 1 - B-SHAPES (Borders shaping perceptions of European societies)
Período documentado: 2023-04-01 hasta 2024-06-30
The European integration project faces multiple challenges in the 21st century. The rise of national protectionism, climate change, refugee crises, the vulnerability of European societies and economies to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, and finally Russia’s unprovoked military aggression against Ukraine have called Europe’s post-war peace and stability into question. European borderlands are particularly vulnerable to these multiple crises as they often become hot spots of large influx of refugees and migrants, and the frontline of the reintroduction of border controls and closures, and other external shocks which may hinder cross-border economic and social development. Nevertheless, European borderlands are still perceived by the European Commission as ‘Living labs of European integration’ where new ideas and solutions for European integration are often tested (European Commission, 2021). Therefore, B-SHAPES seeks to identify, understand, and re-envision the key role of borders as a central factor forming and changing people’s perceptions of European societies and politics.
To scrutinise the idea of a socially and culturally coherent Europe, B-SHAPES engages with people’s perceptions of European societies with a focus on the re-bordering trends in Europe, both at EU-internal and external borders, as they are threatening the process of European integration and are bound to alter perceptions of European heritage as shared values, beliefs, and traditions that bridge people living within and across the European territory. To both understand and re-envision the idea of a socially and culturally coherent Europe in the light of current multiple crises, B-SHAPES investigates borders’ continuing impact on perceptions of the European integration process and provide policy recommendations on how to create a more resilient, inclusive, and democratic European society. It aims at illuminate practices of dealing with multiple and often conflictual cultural heritage and contribute to the development of intercultural understanding and of social cohesion of European society.
To scrutinise the idea of a socially and culturally coherent Europe, B-SHAPES engages with people’s perceptions of European societies with a focus on the re-bordering trends in Europe, both at EU-internal and external borders, as they are threatening the process of European integration and are bound to alter perceptions of European heritage as shared values, beliefs, and traditions that bridge people living within and across the European territory. To both understand and re-envision the idea of a socially and culturally coherent Europe in the light of current multiple crises, B-SHAPES investigates borders’ continuing impact on perceptions of the European integration process and provide policy recommendations on how to create a more resilient, inclusive, and democratic European society. It aims at illuminate practices of dealing with multiple and often conflictual cultural heritage and contribute to the development of intercultural understanding and of social cohesion of European society.
B-SHAPES has developed a theoretical framework on European border narratives to provide a common ground for the project. Moreover, it has created a methodological framework to be applied in the empirical work packages based on the state of the art on borders as a factor shaping perceptions of societies. This tool guides the different research tasks in WP3 (Euroscepticism in border regions), WP4 (minorities in border regions) and WP5 (border landscapes as heritage). B-SHAPES completed an analysis of border narratives in minority media outlets coverage of the so-called migration crisis of 2015-16 as well as the reborderings initiated as a reaction to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, reflecting the central role of open borders for national minorities maintaining their relations with kin states on the other side of the border. The analysis also reflects that decision-making on border control/border closures is taken from a central state perspective neglecting the specific situation of borderland residents and border region development. The EU's perceived responsibility regarding internal borders is less pronounced than expected, considering the EU’s key role in overcoming state borders through the Schengen Agreement and cross-border policies. It underscores a certain disconnect between the local and the European Union, with local concerns regarding rebordering processes not being framed as European concerns. Furthermore, B-SHAPES concluded a collection and analysis of 1) tourism material, 2) educational material, and 3) environmental/landscape and heritage planning material. For the latter, the analysis revealed that the exploitation of joint, cross-border heritage has unused potential. This applies also for schools, where common regional and cross-border heritage offers an asset for place-based education that could be integrated more into school curricula.
To provide results beyond the current state of the art, B-SHAPES has developed a theoretical framework, serving as a methodological toolkit that combines the level at which borderlanders see the border (from European to EU, national, sub-national to individual) with the type of border narrative they use when talking about borders (11 themes such as material borders / immaterial borders; bordering as othering / bordering as hospitality and bordering visibility / invisibility) to be applied in empirical research. Drawing on its theoretical framework toolkit, B-SHAPES elaborated border walk as an innovative participatory research method (Citizen Science) to collect people’s narratives related to borders and landscapes, involving citizens residing in border regions. This toolkit also includes zine-making as a research activity that engages young adult citizens from national minorities across selected B-SHAPES case study regions.