European Border Region Studies in Times of Borderization: Overview of the Problem and Perspectives

peer reviewedSince at least the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, the role of borders, which have gained importance in recent decades, could no longer be overlooked. This development, which can be easily reconstructed on a global level, has also penetrated the European border regions along with the virus. There, European border region studies is now confronted with events, which it has thus far hardly had to deal with. This article addresses such events and elaborates on the interplay of borderization and deborderization processes in the context of covidfencing. For this purpose, social negotiation processes of border closures in the Greater Region SaarLorLux and in the German-Polish border area are discussed as “people’s resilience.” Based on this, considerations are presented on how European border region studies can deal with events and questions in times of borderization. Based on international border studies, an extension of the research agenda to everyday cultural issues has been proposed, which looks promising for gaining knowledge. In addition, an adjustment of the common concept of borders has been proposed in order to make the border accessible as a subject of everyday cultural negotiations