Borderland as multicultural space

In the last decades borderlands studies have been rapidly developing in various disciplines. Within the changing function of European borders (from separating line between two souvereign states to borderscapes of intercultural flows and fluid identity) the focus of border scholars moved towards social relations and bottom-up perspective. Thus, borderlands are perceived as laboratories of European integration and multicultural spaces. For the aim of this article, borderlands are defined as spaces located on the geographical border between different states, nations and cultures that are objects of European Union cohesion policy. By analysing the Eurobarometer survey on cross-border cooperation I try to demonstrate differences between border regions covered by the Interreg cross-border cooperation programmes in terms of cross-border practices, general trust in others and attitudes towards citizens of neighbouring countries