Dispassionate Borders: Common Patterns of Belonging in European Cross-Border Regions

Cross-border regions are seen as specific spaces where both cosmopolitanism and nationalistic attitudes can spread. It is commonly argued that due to the physical proximity to a neighbouring country, the development of cross-border encounters and interactions among contiguous populations can both favour the emergence of shared supranational identifications and reinvigorate nationalistic sentiments. Based on a series of semi-structured interviews with inhabitants, this paper investigates common patterns of belonging in three European cross-border regions. The relatively dispassionate way in which the differences created around the border are experienced and communicated by the interviewees reveals that although the border continues to significantly structure the feelings of belonging of the inhabitants of these regions, its centrality and capacity for social polarisation are limited. In the context of the European integration process, the analysis shows that despite the persistence of the border, it is frequently transcended, imbricated with other borders and scales of belonging, and increasingly banalised. These findings suggest that border societies are not necessarily overdetermined by their geography either towards cosmopolitan or nationalistic attitudes.