International Conference B/ORDERS IN MOTION 2018

Conference Report: “B/ORDERS IN MOTION: Current Challenges and Future Perspectives”

Report by: Peter Ulrich, Norbert Cyrus, Maria Klessmann, Carolin Leutloff-Grandits, Snezana Stankovic

In times of successive acceleration of societal transformation processes, the shifting, dissolution, and consolidation of borders and social orders have moved into the center of public and academic attention. Within this context, not only territorial-political demarcation processes of nation-state borders are of central interest but also social, cultural or temporal demarcations (boundaries). Around the globe, practices of de-bordering through transnationalization, globalization and economic interdependence, on the one hand, and practices of re-bordering as a response to increasing migration flows, re-nationalization and protectionism, on the other hand, take place at the same time and illustrate the omnipresence of often paradoxical demarcation processes. To investigate the dynamic interplay of borders and social orders in today´s society has been the main driving force of the Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION which was founded at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) at the German-Polish border. On the fifth anniversary, the interdisciplinary research center organized the international academic conference “B/ORDERS IN MOTION – Current challenges and future perspectives” which took place on 15 – 17 November 2018 in the border towns of Frankfurt (Oder) (15 November) and Słubice (16-17 November) and which was visited by more than 100 researchers from 18 countries. Emanating from completed and ongoing research at the Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION as well as from current and future-oriented developments within border and boundary studies, the conference has theoretically and empirically focused on four thematic streams:

Un/Making Borders and Boundaries
Borderless Labor – Labor across Borders
Migrating Borders & Boundaries
Territorial Borders: The institutionalization of crossings

These thematic fields were conceptualized as streams and each stream was composed by three panels. Together with two round table discussions, a key note lecture and a poster session on research projects addressing topics within the research field of B/ORDERS IN MOTION, these overall 12 panels represented the forums of discussion of the interdisciplinary conference in Frankfurt (Oder) – Słubice.