Project description
How geographical borders shape European perception
The 2020 pandemic resulted in border closures in an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus. This border measure clouded the inclusive European perceptions of heritage and culture. Therefore, it is important to refocus on the central role of borders in the European integration project as well as their influence on people’s perceptions of Europe’s historical and cultural past, heritage and identity. The EU-funded B-SHAPES project will review the role of borders in shaping perceptions of European societies in the 21st century, confronted with the challenge of re-bordering in Europe. The project will apply several participatory and ethnographic citizen science methods, focusing on youth and minorities, and on developing strategies to foster shared European heritage.
Objective
The purpose of B-SHAPES is to refocus on the role of borders in shaping perceptions of European societies in the 21st century, confronted with the challenge of re-borderings in Europe. Borders play a key role in shaping our perceptions of societies, culture, heritage and be-longing. B-SHAPES results will open for a reconfiguration of heritage policies, replacing national approaches with cross-border, European approaches to heritage, empowering citizens and economic sectors to contribute to the creation of a more inclusive vision of cultures and values.
Scrutinizing the idea of a socially and culturally coherent Europe addressed in the call B-SHAPES will use a people’s perspective to focus on re-bordering as a European crisis with a negative impact on the quality of life in border regions. Border regions are living labs of European integration. The border closures of March 2020, induced by the pandemic, have severely disrupted previous attempts to develop more cross-border, inclusive, European perceptions of heritage and culture. Borders have continued to be a decisive factor shaping perceptions of ‘us’ and ‘them’, of culture, identity and belonging. Therefore, it is necessary to refocus on the central role of borders for the European integration project, for how they influence people’s perceptions of Europe’s historical and cultural past, of heritage, culture, identity and belonging.
B-SHAPES will apply different participatory and ethnographic methods of Citizen Science, focusing especially on youth and minorities, to collect data in different European border regions to scrutinize this challenge with the aim to develop strategies and innovative policies using more inclusive approaches to cultivate joint natural, cultural, and historic heritage.
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Funding Scheme
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation ActionsCoordinator
5230 Odense M
Denmark