Research Group "Border & Boundary Studies"

Project lead:

• Prof. Dr Hannes Krämer (Professor, University of Duisburg-Essen)
• PD Dr Carolin Leutloff-Grandits (Senior Researcher, European University Viadrina)
• Prof. Dr Christian Voß (Head, Institute for Slavic and Hungarian Studies, Humboldt University of Berlin)

Research team:

• Dominik Gerst (Research Associate, University of Duisburg-Essen, Institute for Communication Science)
• Maria Klessmann (Research Associate, European University Viadrina)
• Dr Snežana Stanković (Research Associate, Centre for Health Ethics at the Protestant Academy Loccum)
• Dr Peter Ulrich (Scientific Managing Director, University of Potsdam)
• Concha Maria Höfler (Nottingham Trent University)
• Mitja Sienknecht (Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster)
• Lea Valentin (European University of Flensburg)

Former research associates:

• Prof. Dr Larissa Schindler (Professor of Methods of Empirical Social Research at the University of Bayreuth)
• Pauline Pupier

Funding institution:

Ministry of Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg (Seed Money funding January 2017 to December 2018)

Project duration:

2017-2018

Publications:

• Sienknecht, Mitja:„Entgrenzte Konflikte in der Weltgesellschaft. Zur Inklusion internationaler Organisationen in innerstaatliche Konfliksysteme“, Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2017.
• Gerst, Dominik / Klessmann, Maria / Krämer, Hannes / Sienknecht, Mitja / Ulrich, Peter (Hrsg.):„Komplexe Grenzen“ (Berliner Debatte Initial 1), 2018.
• Höfler, Concha Maria:"Boundaries and Belonging in the Greek Community of Georgia", Border Studies. Cultures, Spaces, Orders Vol. 2, Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2020.
• Wille, Christian / Gerst, Dominik / Krämer, Hannes (Hrsg.):"Identities and Methodologies of Border Studies: Recent Empirical and Conceptual Approaches", Borders in Perspective 6, UniGR-Center for Border Studies, 2021.
• Gerst, Dominik / Klessmann, Maria / Krämer, Hannes:"Grenzforschung. Handbuch für Wissenschaft und Studium", Border Studies. Cultures, Spaces, Orders Vol. 3, Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2021.
• Ulrich, Peter:"Participatory Governance in the Europe of Cross-Border Regions. Cooperation – Boundaries – Civil Society", Border Studies. Cultures, Spaces, Orders Vol. 4, Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2021.

The research group "Border & Boundary Studies" was one of the central research groups at the Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION. It bundled the theoretical and conceptual work at the centre by addressing both spatial (Border(land) Studies) and social borders (Boundary Studies). Based on the multifaceted nature of borders, the research group investigated the nature and relationality of current demarcations in various social fields. The interdisciplinary group was set up in cooperation with the Centre for Transnational Border Research "Crossing Borders - Border Crossings" at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and was closely linked to the Border Research Coordination Office at Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION. In terms of both personnel and content, it built on the work of the reading and discussion group AG Grenztheorie(n), which was founded in 2015 by early career researchers at Viadrina. Since 2019, the content-related work of the research group has been continued in various research networks and projects that connect different academic locations - in addition to the Viadrina, these include the University of Duisburg-Essen and the IRS Erkner/BTU Cottbus

Several project lines were pursued as part of the research group's work: Various conceptual works have been summarised under the title "Complex Borders", which dealt with borders as highly complex entities, both in their theoretical conception and in their empirical design. Accordingly, borders have been analysed as multidimensional, dynamic and relational entities that are created, stabilised and undermined by practices and discourses of border demarcation. As part of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation-sponsored conference "Complex Borders: Dimensions, Dynamics, Technologies", which was organised by the research group at the Viadrina in November 2016, the productivity of this approach was discussed with national and international experts. The results were published in the thematic booklet "Komplexe Grenzen" (2018). The conceptual impulses will be taken up and continued in the DFH-funded workshop series "Border Complexities" (2019-2022) in a trinational network of five universities, as well as in the CIERA-funded cooperation project "A Still Divided Sky" on the former inner-German border (2019-2021), together with the Centre Marc Bloch. In 2019 and 2020, the DAAD-funded cooperation projects "Interspaces in Memory Landscapes: Holocaust/Porajmos" (2019) and "The countries of the former Yugoslavia as a "double transit space": Solidarities, border demarcations and border crossings between migrants and the local population on the way to the EU" (2020) with universities in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina emerged from the work of some group members.

In another project line, the research group focussed on the analytical examination of "border infrastructures". Infrastructures can be seen as a substrate, as both "hard" (roads, border fences, pipelines, etc.) and "soft" (people, services, category systems, etc.) foundations of connection and separation, which, as physical and symbolic conditions for success, enable collective social processes and supra-situational structuring and relationalisation services. Based on current infrastructure research in the humanities and social sciences, not only individual border objects and concordant border practices were examined, but also the mostly unconscious, supra-situational, often invisible and standardised relations of border work processes were analysed. In addition to guest lectures at the Research Factory, the panel "Infrastructuring Borders" at the "Borders and Technology" conference of the "Tensions of Europe" network in Athens/Greece in 2017 was an expression of this work. A sociological analysis of the selection practices of border organisations was developed, presented in various presentations (for example at the "Atelier Bordertexturen" at the University of Luxembourg) and is being pursued further.

An interdisciplinary network was established and promoted under the title "Un/Geisse Grenzen". The network primarily connects young researchers from various universities and research institutions within Europe and is dedicated to interdisciplinary research into the dynamics between certainty and uncertainty in border demarcation processes. An application for a scientific network is currently being submitted to the DFG.

The "Border Research Handbook", which was conceived and coordinated by members of the research group, can be seen as a significant contribution to anchoring border research in German-speaking countries. The handbook was published by Nomos Verlag in 2021 and also reflects the network activities of the research group by making the joint work "on the border" accessible to a broader public.

The research group was also a place of content-related exchange with those interested in border research from academia and studies: since 2015, first the Border Theory(s) working group and later the Border & Boundary Studies research group organised a regular border research colloquium, which was continued by the research group members still working at the Viadrina until 2020. In addition to discussing central texts of Border Studies, ongoing research work was presented in this context. In addition, the work of the research group was enriched by several guest researchers who came to Frankfurt (Oder) for stays of several months to work together with the research group at the centre.

Since 2018, several members of the research group have also been involved in the "Cultural Border Studies" section of the Kulturwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft. The joint research association of several colleagues from Frankfurt (Oder), Saarbrücken, Luxembourg and Duisburg-Essen works on a broad spectrum of different border demarcations. The section also organises workshops at regular intervals and in 2020, together with the Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION, the 6th annual conference of the Kulturwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft (KWG) in Frankfurt (Oder).

Several project lines were pursued as part of the research group's work: Under the title "Complex Borders", various conceptual works have been summarised that deal with borders as highly complex entities, both in their theoretical conception and in their empirical design. Accordingly, borders have been analysed as multidimensional, dynamic and relational entities that are created, stabilised and undermined by practices and discourses of border demarcation. As part of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation-sponsored conference "Complex Borders: Dimensions, Dynamics, Technologies", which was organised by the research group at the Viadrina in November 2016, the productivity of this approach was discussed with national and international experts. The results were published in the thematic booklet "Komplexe Grenzen" (2018). The conceptual impulses will be taken up and continued in the DFH-funded workshop series "Border Complexities" (2019-2022) in a trinational network of five universities, as well as in the CIERA-funded cooperation project "A Still Divided Sky" on the former inner-German border (2019-2021), together with the Centre Marc Bloch. In 2019 and 2020, the DAAD-funded cooperation projects "Interspaces in Memory Landscapes: Holocaust/Porajmos" (2019) and "The countries of the former Yugoslavia as a "double transit space": Solidarities, border demarcations and border crossings between migrants and the local population on the way to the EU" (2020) with universities in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina emerged from the work of some group members.

In another project line, the research group focussed on the analytical examination of "border infrastructures". Infrastructures can be seen as a substrate, as both "hard" (roads, border fences, pipelines, etc.) and "soft" (people, services, category systems, etc.) foundations of connection and separation, which, as physical and symbolic conditions for success, enable collective social processes and supra-situational structuring and relationalisation services. Based on current infrastructure research in the humanities and social sciences, not only individual border objects and concordant border practices were examined, but also the mostly unconscious, supra-situational, often invisible and standardised relations of border work processes were analysed. In addition to guest lectures at the Research Factory, the panel "Infrastructuring Borders" at the "Borders and Technology" conference of the "Tensions of Europe" network in Athens/Greece in 2017 was an expression of this work. A sociological analysis of the selection practices of border organisations was developed, presented in various presentations (for example at the "Atelier Bordertexturen" at the University of Luxembourg) and is being pursued further.

An interdisciplinary network was established and promoted under the title "Un/Geisse Grenzen". The network primarily connects young researchers from various universities and research institutions within Europe and is dedicated to interdisciplinary research into the dynamics between certainty and uncertainty in border demarcation processes. An application for a scientific network is currently being submitted to the DFG.

The "Border Research Handbook", which was conceived and coordinated by members of the research group, can be seen as a significant contribution to anchoring border research in German-speaking countries. The handbook was published by Nomos Verlag in 2021 and also reflects the network activities of the research group by making the joint work "on the border" accessible to a broader public.

The research group was also a place of exchange with those interested in border research from academia and studies: since 2015, first the Border Theory(s) working group and later the Border & Boundary Studies research group organised a regular border research colloquium, which was continued by the research group members still working at the Viadrina until 2020. In addition to discussing central texts of Border Studies, ongoing research work was presented in this context. In addition, the work of the research group was enriched by several guest researchers who came to Frankfurt (Oder) for stays of several months to work together with the research group at the centre.

Since 2018, several members of the research group have also been involved in the "Cultural Border Studies" section of the Kulturwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft. The joint research association of several colleagues from Frankfurt (Oder), Saarbrücken, Luxembourg and Duisburg-Essen works on a broad spectrum of different border demarcations. The section also organises workshops at regular intervals as well as the 6th annual conference of the Kulturwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft (KWG) in Frankfurt (Oder) together with the Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION in 2020.