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Cultural Border Studies focus on the social and symbolic dimensions of borders. They emerged from the intersection of the cultural turn in Border Studies with the border turn in Cultural Studies and address everyday cultural and artistic-aesthetic issues. During the resurgence of borders, Cultural Border Studies have gained further importance, which is reflected in their progressive institutionalization. Les Cultural Border Studies s'intéressent aux dimensions sociales et symboliques des frontières. Elles sont nées de l'intersection du Cultural Turn des Border Studies et du Border Turn des Cultural Studies et abordent des questions au niveau de la culture quotidienne et de l'esthétique. Dans le contexte de la réémergence des frontières, les Cultural Border Studies ont encore gagné en importance, ce qui se reflète dans leur institutionnalisation progressive. Die Cultural Border Studies befassen sich mit sozialen und symbolischen Dimensionen von Grenzen. Sie sind aus der Verschneidung des cultural turn in den Border Studies mit dem border turn in den Cultural Studies hervorgegangen und adressieren Fragen auf alltagskultureller und künstlerisch-ästhetischer Ebene. Im Zuge des Wiedererstarken von Grenzen haben die Cultural Border Studies weiter an Bedeutung gewonnen, was sich in einer fortschreitenden Institutionalisierung widerspiegelt.

Borders are increasingly at the center of social debate. The resurgence of borders manifests itself in a paradoxical way: For while border walls are once again being built and border facilities are being expanded, regulatory and control practices are increasingly fragmented and invisible in transterritorial terms. These developments point to the need to rethink the concept of borders, which is still unquestioned in many places. For this purpose, selected approaches are presented in an overview.

The notion of “vulnerability” occupies a central role in academic literature, policymaking, humanitarian debates, and everyday discourses on migration and asylum. Its popularity has led some academics and practitioners to use “vulnerability” as a self-explanatory condition or phenomenon. However, a common and systematic understanding of the concept is still missing, and the moral and political meaning often ascribed to this notion may have (un)intended detrimental consequences for those migrants deemed vulnerable. Thus, this paper sets out to critically unpack and highlight the complexities hidden behind this notion in order to provide a conceptual analysis of vulnerability in the context of migration. We do so by (1) providing an overview of definitions of vulnerability across different fields of research, (2) identifying common conceptualizations or types of vulnerability and discussing their implications, and (3) highlighting possible negative societal and psychological consequences of its implementation in the context of migration. Finally, we propose (4) a new conceptual model for understanding vulnerability in the context of migration, showing how this notion can become a useful analytical tool in migration research.

This article outlines the community economies of Esch-sur-Alzette, the ‘second city’ of Luxembourg. ‘Community economies’ – an approach outlined by J.K. Gibson-Graham – draws attention to alternative narratives of economic development and the representation of economic identity. Despite (the Grand Duchy of) Luxembourg’s reputation as a European Union centre, with substantial finance and tax activity, Esch-sur-Alzette is a post-industrial and multilingual melting pot. The alternative narrative here is of the multiple community-based organisations and movements in Esch-sur-Alzette: an energy cooperative, urban gardening, an upcycling clothing factory, a local food shop and restaurant, and vibrant civil society discussions and interventions in (inter)national politics. Civil society, while central to both understandings of grassroots environmental action and the community economies framework of Gibson-Graham, takes on quite a different flavour in Luxembourg. This article then takes the case of Luxembourg to reread the relationship of the state to the so-called third sector, in doing so defending the political possibilities of community economies.

This article employs the analytical perspective of logistics to explore a key, yet quite overlooked, aspect of the functioning of the EU border regime: the reception and associated territorial distribution of newly arrived asylum seekers. Drawing on qualitative data collected at the height of the ‘refugee reception crisis’ in multiple contexts in Italy and Sweden, the article shows how reception is undergoing a process of ‘logistification’ . In this process, organisational and logistical concerns prevail over the care for those who are assisted, and reception is turned into a logistical matter of moving and accommodating asylum seekers. Crucial to this process of ‘logistification’ is the warehousing of asylum seekers – an art of government that seeks to objectify asylum seekers through their depersonalisation, victimisation and (im)mobilisation. The article argues that the ‘logistification’ of reception not only has dehumanising effects on asylum seekers, but also exposes the attempt to make profit out their management and transfer. This creates the conditions for the development of a reception industry in which the very presence of asylum seekers is valorised for the profit of a whole range of actors who ensure the reproduction, transfer, knowledge and control of those hosted in reception facilities.

Luxembourg is characterized by phenomena of mobility that include cross-border commuters and residential migrants. While both groups have been mainly examined from a socioeconomic perspective, this paper adopts a sociocultural approach. We will focus on the question of the extent to which cross-border mobility in everyday life promotes cross-border lifeworlds. This will involve examining people’s social contacts at their place of work and/or place of residence as well as the spatial organization of practices of the everyday life of both groups. The paper gives insights into everyday lives at the EU’s internal borders, whose organization into nation states is subordinate and at the same time constitutive.

Cette étude transfrontalière s’intéresse aux jeunes, qui n’ont pratiquement pas été pris en compte dans les analyses qui ont suivi la pandémie. Les auteurs ont analysé en un premier temps les conséquences de la pandémie pour la formation professionnelle en alternance à la frontière franco-allemande. À cet effet ils s’appuient sur des interviews qu’ils ont réalisées eux-mêmes et qui permettent un aperçu des dynamiques de la coopération transfrontalière dans le domaine professionnel pour cette période qui a été marquée non seulement par le Covid-19, mais aussi par une réorganisation institutionnelle. Par la suite les auteurs présentent les résultats d’un sondage qu’ils ont réalisé auprès d’étudiants en licence et en master suivant des programmes d’études à proximité de la frontière au sein de la Grande Région. Ce travail a e´té coordonné par l’Université de la Sarre et informe sur la mobilité physique et virtuelle des étudiants, sur leurs contacts sociaux ainsi que sur les besoins en termes de conseil et de soutien pour les années 2020 et 2021. Les résultats sont illustrés à travers des exemples éloquents évoquant les expériences des étudiants du master trinational en Border Studies de l’UniGR. The cross-border study looks at young people who, in retrospect, were granted virtually no consideration in the pandemic. First of all, the authors analyse the impact of the pandemic on vocational training across the German-French border. They base their findings on a number of interviews, which provide insights into the dynamics of cross-border cooperation in the vocational field at a time which was characterised not only by Covid-19, but also by institutional restructuring. The authors then go on to present the results of their own survey of students on bachelor's and master's courses in the border areas of the Greater Region. The survey was coordinated by Saarland University and provides information on the physical and virtual mobility of students, on their social contacts and their counselling and support needs during 2020 and 2021. The results are illustrated with concrete examples from students on the tri-national UniGR master's course in Border Studies. Die grenzüberschreitende Studie wendet sich jungen Menschen zu, die in der Nachbetrachtung der Pandemie kaum Berücksichtigung fanden. Die Autor:innen analysieren zunächst die Pandemiefolgen für die duale Berufsausbildung an der deutsch-französischen Grenze. Dabei stützen sie sich auf eigene Interviews, die Einblicke in die Dynamiken der grenzüberschreitenden Kooperation im Berufswesen geben in einer Zeit, die nicht nur von Covid-19, sondern auch von einer institutionellen Neuordnung geprägt war. Im Weiteren stellen die Autor:innen die Ergebnisse einer eigenen Befragung von Studierenden grenznaher Bachelor- und Master-Studienprogramme in der Großregion vor. Sie wurde an der Universität des Saarlandes koordiniert und gibt Auskunft über die physische und virtuelle Mobilität von Studierenden, über ihre sozialen Kontakte sowie den Beratungs- und Unterstützungsbedarf in den Jahren 2020 und 2021. Mit anschaulichen Beispielen aus dem trinationalen UniGR-Master in Border Studies werden die Ergebnisse illustriert.

This article diagnoses and critiques a type of governmentality associated with waiting during protracted asylum appeal procedures by drawing upon data from a multi-methodological study of asylum adjudication in Europe. Focusing on Austria, Germany and Italy, we explore the use of integration-related considerations in asylum appeal processes by looking at the ways in which these considerations permeate judges’ decision-making, particularly, but not exclusively, on the granting of national, non-EU harmonised protection statuses. Building on insights from the literature on conditional integration we question the implicit sociopolitical biases and moral assumptions that underpin this permeation. We show that the use of integration-related considerations in asylum appeals transforms migrant waiting into a period of probation during which rejected asylum seekers’ conducts are governed and tested in relation to the use of time. More than simply waiting patiently, rejected asylum seekers are expected to wait productively, whereby productivity is assessed through the neoliberal imperatives of entrepreneurship, autonomy and selfimprovement. We thus contribute to scholarship on migrant waiting by showing how time is capitalised by state authorities even when – and actually because – it offers opportunities for migrants.

Our article addresses two aspects of young migrants’ understandings of integration: their own ideas of what integration is, and their perception of the destination society’s concepts and expectations regarding their integration. We analyze qualitative interviews which were conducted in the Horizon 2020 project MIMY, in Germany, Luxembourg and Norway, using the grounded theory methodology. Our exploration shows that the young migrants’ awareness of the existing ideas of integration surrounding them creates a complex reflective interaction between their own ideas and the (perceived) expectations from society. We identified aspects of consonance, where young migrants’ ideas coincide with the expectations they perceive. More importantly, however, our research has discovered that the youth experience tensions and dissonance between their own ideas of what integration should be and the concepts and expectations regarding integration they feel confronted with by society. Our analysis revealed that while young migrants’ understandings of integration are very close to state-of-the-art scientific conceptualizations of integration, this view is not matched by the meaning of integration they perceive around them.

Cross-border cooperation, border regions, soft spaces? This special issue approaches cross-border informal planning processes in cross-border regions by analysing them from a perspective that combines networks, governance and territorialization. Such a relational perspective will be developed by papers which deal with a variety of European cross-border regions and empirical evidence related to the nexus of networks, governance and territorialization.

Die Auffassung, dass Grenzen aus sozialer Praxis hervorgehen und soziale Praxis hervorbringen, hat in den letzten Jahrzehnten für eine Reihe an Ansätzen und Begriffen gesorgt. Der Beitrag versucht diese zu systematisieren und stellt einen processual shift, multiplicity shift und complexitiy shift vor. Diese Trends beschreiben verschiedene analytische Schwerpunktsetzungen und eine zunehmend differenziertere Beschäftigung mit Grenzen. Abschließend wird auf die noch unzureichend bestimmte Kategorie der sozialen Praxis und auf das Potential der Praxistheorien für die Grenzforschung eingegangen.

When first established in 1987, the Erasmus programme (rebranded Erasmus+ in 2014) aimed to encourage transnational collaboration between higher education institutions without involving national authorities (Ribeiro 2021). One of its first functions was to enhance cultural integration (Gonzalez et al. 2011), but within a few years the European Commission started to include topics such as social and economic inclusion, which led to a diversification of its programmes (Cairns 2017), culminating in Erasmus+ encompassing areas such as volunteering, entrepreneurship and training (European Commission 2018: 3). The objective of this chapter is to look at this expanded range of opportunities for internationalized learning, focusing on experiences in Norway, Romania and Luxembourg, and a process we have called ‘Erasmus-ization.’ In practice, this can take many forms. For example, the interviews from Romania describe an enculturation to European values and global citizenship (Deardorff 2006), and experiential learning (Kolb 2014). In the case of Norway, a broadening of opportunity structures and an elongated transition to employment is found, and for young people who move to Luxembourg the future after Erasmus+ and the intrinsic value of exchanges can manifest many years after the experience. We therefore have a diversification of meaning, as well as a broadening of programmatic scope.

Mobility is often mentioned as one main aspect of “internationalisation”. However, little is known about the internationalisation at home of non-mobile young people outside formal higher education. In the post- COVID19- era, mobility might remain limited and immobility becomes the rule. Therefore, internationalisation at home plays an important role in times of restricted mobility. To what extent are non-mobile people internationalised? Which factors favour this internationalisation amongst the non-mobiles? We develop a comprehensive index which empirically tests whether and to what extent non-mobiles, become internationalised at home. The answers of 3431 non-mobiles respondents be-tween 18 and 29 years old from six EU countries are analysed. First, we review the concept “internationalisation at home”. We present an empirical measure of internationalisation at home consisting of three dimensions 1) foreign language skills i.e. Eng-lish; 2) multicultural way of living; 3) information about foreign countries. Linear regression models are used to empirically explain which factors influence the internationalisation at home of the non-mobiles on the individual level, using their socio-demographic and social embed-dedness, as well as controlling for the country level.

The text originates from a time of borderization, at global level and at the EU’s internal borders. At the latest since covidfencing began in the spring of 2020, many Europeans have become familiar with border experiences and the practices of civic contestation of borders. With that in mind, the text argues that it is necessary to open European border region studies to the contestation of borders, for which it should enter into dialogue with international (and critical) border studies. Der Text geht von einem Zeitalter der Vergrenzungen sowohl auf globaler Ebene als auch an den EU-Binnengrenzen aus. Denn spätestens seit dem Covidfencing im Frühjahr 2020 sind viele Europäer*innen mit border experiences und Praktiken der zivilgesellschaftlichen Anfechtung von Grenzen vertraut. Vor diesem Hintergrund argumentiert der Text für eine notwendige Öffnung der Europäischen Grenzraumforschung für das Umkämpftsein von Grenzen, wofür sie mit der internationalen (und kritischen) Grenzforschung in Dialog treten sollte.

Territoriale Grenzen und soziale Grenzziehungsprozesse gewinnen im Zuge der Covid-19-Pandemie eine zum Teil dramatische Relevanz. Zugleich sind aber auch – und insbesondere in Grenzregionen – neue (grenzüberschreitende) Allianzen und Solidaritäten zu beobachten. Dieser Beitrag legt keine elaborierte Analyse vor, sondern versteht sich als eine kritische Kommentierung von Grenz(raum)dynamiken in Zeiten der globalen Corona-Pandemie.

This paper examines how practice-theoretical considerations can be linked with those of a spatial-theoretical nature and translated into a heuristic of spatial analysis from a cultural studies perspec-tive. This question focus results from the understanding that space should be regarded as an emer-gent aspect of the social and that it is still largely insufficiently defined in Border Studies. Drawing on a number of different spatial concepts, the paper first presents an action-theoretical notion of space and reformulates it in a practice-theoretical framework. It constitutes the point of departure for the development of the spaces of the border model with its analytical categories of social practices, practical knowledge as well as physical-material and social-structural aspects. The diversity of con-nections between these analytical categories have proven to be heuristically particularly useful. Cet article examine comment les considérations praxéologiques peuvent être liées à celles de nature spatio-théorique et traduites en une heuristique d'analyse spatiale dans une optique d'études culturelles. Cette question résulte de l’idée que l’espace doit être considéré comme un aspect émergeant du social et qu’il est encore insuffisamment défini dans les border studies. S'appuyant sur un certain nombre de concepts spatiaux différents, cet article présente tout d’abord une notion d’espace fondé sur la théorie d’action et la reformule dans une perspective praxéologique. Celle-ci constitue le point de départ du développement du modèle des espaces de frontière avec ses catégories analytiques de pratiques sociales, de connaissances pratiques ainsi que d’aspects physiques, matériels et socio-structurels. La diversité des connexions entre ces catégories analytiques s’est avérée heuristiquement particulièrement utile.

Youth unemployment is a challenge in many European countries – especially since the financial crises. Young people face difficulties in the transition from education into employment. This article focuses on young mobile Europeans from six countries (Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Norway, Romania and Spain). The research question is whether and to which extent international mobility has an impact on employability and therefore reduces youth unemployment. By using a cluster analysis of personal adaptability, social and human capital and career identity, the importance of mobility experiences for employability is analysed in a recent dataset of 5,272 young (formerly) mobile respondents. Youth mobility is established as a strong characteristic for the employability cluster. Mobility is however not the long-term aim of most of the mobile young people, since most of the mobiles choose to return to their home countries after one or more stays abroad.

Luxembourg is characterized by phenomena of mobility that includecross-border commuters and residential migrants. While both groups havebeen mainly examined from a socioeconomic perspective, this paperadopts a sociocultural approach. We will focus on the question of the ex-tent to which cross-border mobility in everyday life promotes cross-borderlifeworlds. This will involve examining people’s social contacts at theirplace of work and/or place of residence as well as the spatial organizationof practices of the everyday life of both groups. The paper gives insights in-to everyday lives at the EU’s internal borders, whose organization into na-tion states is subordinate and at the same time constitutive.

For a decade now, borders in Europe have been back on the political agenda. Border research has responded and is breaking new ground in thinking about and exploring borders. This book follows this development and strengthens a perspective that is interested in life realities and that focuses on everyday cultural experiences of borders. The authors reconstruct such experiences in the context of different forms of migration and mobility as well as language contact situations and are sensitive to the freedom of the participants. In this way, they empirically identify everyday cultural usage or appropriation strategies of borders as vastly different experiences of borders. The readers of this volume will gain insights into current developments in border research and life realities in Europe where borders are (made) relevant. With contributions by Christian Wille, Birte Nienaber, Carsten Yndigegn, Isabelle Pigeron-Piroth, Rachid Belkacem, Ursula Roos, Elisabeth Boesen, Ariela House, Ignacy Jóźwiak, Corinne Martin, Erika Kalocsányiová, Xosé-Afonso Álvarez, Konstanze Jungbluth, Florian Dost, Nicole Richter, Dominik Gerst. Seit einem Jahrzehnt stehen Grenzen in Europa wieder auf der politischen Agenda. Die Grenzforschung hat darauf reagiert und schlägt neue Wege ein, um Grenzen zu denken und zu untersuchen. Das Buch folgt dieser Entwicklung und macht eine Perspektive stark, die sich für Lebenswirklichkeiten interessiert und die alltagskulturelle Erfahrung der Grenze in den Blick rückt. Die Autor_innen rekonstruieren solche Erfahrungen im Kontext verschiedener Migrations- und Mobilitätsformen sowie Sprachkontaktsituationen und sind sensibel für die Gestaltungsspielräume der Akteure. Auf diese Weise werden alltagskulturelle Gebrauchs- bzw. Aneignungsstrategien von Grenzen als höchst unterschiedliche Erfahrungen der Grenze empirisch herausgearbeitet. Die Leser des Bands bekommen Einblicke in aktuelle Entwicklungen der Grenzforschung und in Lebenswirklichkeiten in Europa, in denen Grenzen relevant (gemacht) werden. Mit Beiträgen von Christian Wille, Birte Nienaber, Carsten Yndigegn, Isabelle Pigeron-Piroth, Rachid Belkacem, Ursula Roos, Elisabeth Boesen, Ariela House, Ignacy Jóźwiak, Corinne Martin, Erika Kalocsányiová, Xosé-Afonso Álvarez, Konstanze Jungbluth, Florian Dost, Nicole Richter, Dominik Gerst

Territorial borders and social demarcation processes are becoming dramatically more important during the coronavirus pandemic. A concise example is the 25th anniversary of the Schengen Agreement that coincides with border control tightening and the closure of internal EU borders. At the same time, there is a certain degree of solidarity between the EU countries, which, at the end of March, slowly seems to be picking up speed. This includes not only the increasingly articulated concern to act in a coordinated manner both with the containment matters and the exit strategy. It is also shown in the increasing admission of critically ill patients from neighboring countries and the dispatch of medical supplies to particularly affected areas in other countries.

When a new type of coronavirus was first reported in China in December 2019, it was not yet clear how rapidly and in what a short time frame COVID-19 would affect the entire world. In January 2020, Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, was quarantined and just two months later, the virus had spread to Central Europe; a subsequent wave of infections followed in many places, including the United States. As a result, presumed certainties began to erode: freedom of movement was restricted, entry restrictions were imposed and, paradoxically, precisely 25 years after the Schengen Agreement came into force, many EU internal borders were closed. This article focuses on these border closings, but also deals with drawing social boundaries in the wake of the pandemic. Thus, the border geographies examined range from the subject level to the global level and will be put into context with the security measures that have been introduced, the orderings and ordinances used, political re-nationalization reflexes and civil society resistance. The article ends with an outlook of some additional topics and questions from the perspective of Border Studies with and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Relatively few studies have examined the physical health of children who experience parental separation. The few studies on this topic have largely focused on the United States and have used cross-sectional designs. Our study investigates the relationship between parental separation and children’s body mass index (BMI) and overweight/obesity risk using the UK Millennium Cohort Study. Treating parental separation as a process, we analyze variations in children’s physical health before and after the date of their parents’ separation in order to capture potential anticipation, adaptation, delayed, or cumulative effects. We estimate fixed-effects models to account for the potential correlation between children’s physical health and unobserved factors associated with parental separation, such as socioeconomic background and other time-invariant parental characteristics. We find no evidence of statistically significant anticipation effects in the build-up to parental separation or of statistically significant changes in children’s physical health immediately after separation. However, our results show that in the longer term, the BMI of children whose parents separate significantly deviates from the BMI of children from intact families. Furthermore, this association is especially strong for separations that occur when children are under age 6. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s13524-019-00784-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The mobility of people influences the (re)creation of borders through bordering practices. Conversely, borders and bordering practices affect the management of mobility and thus peoples’ migratory trajectories. Based on in-depth qualitative interviews with refugees conducted for the H2020 project CEASEVAL, this paper explores the ways in which borders at various levels (spatial, legal, economic and social) influence migrants’ mobility before, during and after arrival in Luxembourg. As such, by focusing on the interrelations between border studies and mobility studies, it brings together two fields which have rarely been studied together, particularly when focused on refugees. This is of particular interest both empirically (given the multiple flows of people arriving in Luxembourg) and conceptually (as bordering practices relate to both practices of mobility and border making, as well as border crossing, from an institutional and experiential perspective). With 2,322 asylum applications in 2017, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is home to one asylum application per 254 people. This is far more that the EU-28 average, which is one application for every 787 people. Despite this, academic research depicting the everyday experiences of refugees in Luxembourg is lacking. This paper will first provide an overview of the Luxembourgish context with regards to asylum seekers and refugees. It will then analyse how bordering practices are experienced when carried out by traditional actors such as border agents. Lastly, it will shed light on the participants’ everyday experiences of borders by (non) traditional actors, such as ‘citizens’ and housing/labour market agents. It seeks to explore the ways in which the Luxembourgish politics of belonging influence the respondents’ feelings of belonging, which can further affect their (im)mobilities.

Die Border Studies sind ein aufstrebendes Arbeitsfeld und erfassen zunehmend mehr Disziplinen. Dabei hat sich eine Untersuchungsperspektive durchgesetzt, die sich an den Akten der Hervorbringung von Grenzen und Grenzräumen orientiert und als practice shift bezeichnet werden kann. Sie ist allerdings in die Kritik geraten und erfährt in jüngster Zeit eine dynamische Weiterentwicklung. Sie gründet auf dem Anliegen border(ing) practices weitgreifender zu erfassen und ihrer Vielschichtigkeit gerecht zu werden. Der Vortrag greift diese Entwicklung auf, beleuchtet zentrale Prämissen und Ansätze und skizziert die Umrisse eines sich vollziehenden complexity shift in den Border Studies. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird abschließend die Rolle der disziplinenübergreifenden Zusammenarbeit in der zukünftigen Grenz(raum)forschung thematisiert.

European youth mobility seems to be fostering Europe’s unequal pace of integration, which sees certain countries benefit at the expense of others (Ohmacht et al., 2009; van Mol & Timmerman, 2014). Using a comparative approach, the paper aims to relate a macro-level country-typology focussing on human capital with individual mobility-motivations on the micro-level. Our methodological approach is based on a secondary macro-data analysis and analyses of mobility-motivations of young people (micro-data) deriving from qualitative (N=152) and quantitative data (N=5,499) collected in six European countries. In order to examine correspondence between macro-conditions and micro-aspects, we relate information on mobility-motivations to the country-typology by allocating mobile youth to the respective types of their home country. The results show that the country-types compose different opportunity structures, which are reflected in individual motivations. Accordingly, different country-types can be seen as an example of the heterogeneity and inequality of European social and territorial mobility frames.

In dem Beitrag wird ein praxissoziologischer Ansatz für die Beschreibung und Analyse der grenzüberschreitenden Zusammenarbeit vorgestellt. Dafür wird zunächst die Entwicklung der Kooperationsforschung, ihre charakteristischen Orientierungen sowie die Grundzüge praxistheoretischen Denkens skizziert. Darauf aufbauend wird die heuristische Denkfigur der grenzüberschreitenden Praxisformation erarbeitet, die mit Prämissen herkömmlicher Kooperationsforschung bricht. Sie wird am Beispiel von vier Herausforderungen der grenzüberschreitenden Zusammenarbeit weiter ausdifferenziert, um schließlich zu einer alternativen Perspektivierung der grenzüberschreitenden Zusammenarbeit zu gelangen. Es folgt ein Ausblick, der auf die forschungspraktischen Besonderheiten des vorgestellten Ansatzes eingeht mit Blick auf eine künftige praxissoziologische und multidisziplinär anschlussfähige Kooperationsforschung. The paper presents a practice-sociological approach to the description and analysis of cross-border cooperation. For this purpose, the development of cooperation research, its characteristic orientations as well as the fundamentals of practical theoretical thinking will be outlined. Based on this, the heuristic figure of thought of cross-border practice formation is developed, which breaks with the premises of conventional cooperation research. It will be further differentiated on the basis of four challenges of cross-border cooperation, in order to arrive at an alternative perspective on cross-border cooperation. The following is an outlook, which deals with the research-specific features of the approach presented, with a view to a future practice-sociological and multidisciplinary cooperation research. L'article présente une approche praxéologique pour la description et l'analyse de la coopération transfrontalière. À cette fin, l’évolution de la recherche sur la coopération, ses orientations caractéristiques ainsi que les principes fondamentaux de la pensée praxéologique seront exposés. Sur cette base, le modèle heuristique de la formation transfrontalière de pratiques est développé en rupture avec les prémisses de la recherche conventionnelle sur la coopération. Il sera davantage différencié sur la base de quatre défis de la coopération transfrontalière, afin d’aboutir à une vue analytique alternative sur la coopération transfrontalière. L’analyse qui suit traite des spécificités méthodologiques liées à l’approche présentée et vise à une future recherche sur la coopération orientée vers la praxéologie et la multidisciplinarité.

This article uses a novel quantitative methodology to examine sepulchral material culture. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of social spatialization and art as agency, the authors contend that variations in grave designs and materiality cannot simply be explained in terms of changes in fashion and mentality. Other factors also need to be taken into account. Using a digital data collection tool, the Cemetery Surveyor Application (CSA) developed at the University of Luxembourg, they compile a set of data encompassing all the material aspects of each grave in a cemetery in Luxembourg (Western Europe), the setting of their case study. The graves are dated from the 1850s to 2015. |The authors compare the chronological evolution of the most recurrent material features with a GIS-based spatial analysis of the same features. The results of the spatial analysis not only largely confirm the chronological study, but also allow them to be more precise (dating is often problematic) and include undated graves (a third of the sample). The digital data collection tool also allows them to compare cemeteries and to highlight variations in these that cannot merely be imputed to chronology, but also to spatial proximity and material agency.

This article addresses the varying interpretations, idealising and use of community, with specific reference to the way community is mobilised, deployed and put to work within the transition to low carbon futures. It surveys the broad heritage of community from nineteenth century sociology to more recent post-structural interpretations, including community as a governmental technique. This backdrop of wider understandings of community is now reflected in the emerging field of community low carbon transitions. The paper looks to the multiple, overlapping yet categorically different communities implied in this theoretically and empirically burgeoning field. First, and in common with community’s social science heritage, this article argues that community is polysemic. That is, it carries within it wide and varied semantic associations; importantly — amongst small-scale, place or rurality — requiring commonality and a border. Digging deeper, community also has a concurrent social theory legacy beyond referred semantic association. Here community is polyvalent, capaciously involving many different and overlapping values: from exclusive belonging, exclusion of others and difference, a more governmental fostering of correct conduct and good behaviour, to a feeling of belonging or acceptance that goes beyond semantics. Lastly, and innovatively for this area of study, the paper addresses community as phatic communication. Here, community has no meaning, nor does it imply shared or encouraged values. Rather community is reduced to gesture, which transforms understanding the way community is used in meeting low carbon challenges.

Maintaining cognitive function is a prerequisite of living independently, which is a highly valued component in older individuals' well-being. In this article we assess the role of early-life and later-life nutritional status, education, and literacy on the cognitive functioning of older adults living in poverty in Peru. We exploit the baseline sample of the Peruvian noncontributory pension program Pension 65 and find that current nutritional status and literacy are strongly associated with cognitive functioning for poor older adults. In a context of rising popularity of noncontributory pension programs around the world, our study intends to contribute to the discussion of designing accompanying measures to the pension transfer, such as adult literacy programs and monitoring of adequate nutrition of older adults.

Within the so-called migration crisis, the focus of media and research has been mainly on Mediterranean countries, which were the first impacted by the arrival of refugees, as well as big recipients of asylum seekers such as Germany. Less attention has been directed toward small-scale countries such as Luxembourg, where the number of registered refugees arriving has more than doubled in 2015 and 2016 compared to 2014. In 2016, Luxembourg had 3582 registered first time applicants, which represents one of the highest numbers relative to its population in the European Union. Against this background, this presentation will focus on how Luxembourg has dealt with the implementation of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) and the ways in which it has been affected by the so-called migration crisis. This paper will particularly focus on the question of reception of asylum seekers and refugees. Given the large number of applicants relative to the small size of the country, and the limited number of administrative levels, how was reception implemented, and what are the lesson to be learned? It will do so by mapping the main actors involved in the refugee scene. It will then move on to the contextualization of the reception of refugees in the housing and employment market. Finally, it will critically examine the stakeholders’ involvement in order to find the gaps in the asylum seeker/refugee reception.

This paper analyses everyday practices carried out by the residents of the Saarland, Lorraine, Luxembourg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Wallonia in the neighbouring regions abroad. The key assumption is the consider-ation that the inhabitants of the Greater Region SaarLorLux define the transborder reality of life of this region through their cross-border performance of everyday practices. Such a socio-constructivist perspective is not interested in what the Greater Region SaarLorLux actually is, but in what ways it is constituted or how it manifests itself in the daily lives of its inhabitants. Therefor the most common cross-border everyday prac-tices, such as shopping for everyday needs, leisure-time shopping, outdoor recreation / tourism, cultural events, as well as visiting friends and family are looked at in greater detail. These observations are based on selected findings from three recent empirical studies of the study region, which have been linked to each other as well as socio-culturally and socioeconomically mapped in order to carve out the spatial organiza-tion, the motives and other contextual factors of cross-border everyday practices in the Greater Region SaarLorLux. This approach allows reconstructing mobility flows and spatial emphases in the context of everyday practices and gives insights into the nature of cross-border living realities in the Greater Region SaarLorLux. In diesem Beitrag werden Alltagspraktiken untersucht, die von den Einwohnern des Saarlandes, Lothringens, Luxemburgs, von Rheinland-Pfalz und Wallonien in angrenzenden Regionen im Ausland ausgeführt werden. Dafür leitend ist die Überlegung, dass sich die Großregion SaarLorLux anhand der grenzüberschreitenden Ausführungen von Alltagspraktiken ihrer Bewohner als grenzüberschreitende Lebenswirklichkeit bestim-men lässt. In einer solchen sozialkonstruktivistischen Perspektive wird nicht danach gefragt, was die Groß-region SaarLorLux ist, sondern auf welche Weisen sie konstituiert wird bzw. wie sie sich im Alltag ihrer Bewohner manifestiert. Dafür werden die am häufigsten grenzüberschreitend ausgeführten Alltagsprakti-ken näher betrachtet, zu denen das Einkaufen für den täglichen Bedarf, das freizeitorientierte Shoppen, das Erholen im Grünen/Tourismus, das Besuchen von kulturellen Veranstaltungen sowie das Besuchen von Freunden und Familienmitgliedern zählen. Die Betrachtungen basieren auf drei rezenten empirischen Stu-dien im Untersuchungsraum und daraus ausgewählten Befunden, die zueinander in Beziehung gesetzt so-wie soziokulturell und sozioökonomisch eingeordnet werden mit dem Ziel, die räumliche Organisation, die Motive und andere Kontextfaktoren von grenzüberschreitenden Alltagspraktiken in der Großregion SaarLor-Lux herauszuarbeiten. Über dieses Vorgehen werden Mobilitätsströme und räumliche Schwerpunkte im Kontext von Alltagspraktiken rekonstruiert und Einblicke gegeben in die Beschaffenheit von grenzüber-schreitenden Lebenswirklichkeiten in der Großregion SaarLorLux. Cet article analyse les pratiques quotidiennes des habitants de Sarre, de Lorraine, du Luxembourg, de Rhé-nanie-Palatinat et de Wallonie effectuées dans les régions voisines. L’hypothèse est l’existence d’une réalité de vie transfrontalière dans la Grande Région à partir des pratiques transfrontalières de ses habitants. Dans une telle perspective socio-constructiviste, on ne demande pas ce qu'est la Grande Région SaarLorLux, mais comment elle est constituée ou comment elle se manifeste dans la vie quotidienne de ses habitants. Pour donner des éléments de réponse, seront analysées les pratiques transfrontalières les plus courantes, no-tamment le fait de faire des achats et du shopping, se détendre dans la nature/faire du tourisme, fréquenter des manifestations culturelles et rendre visite à des amis et à la famille. Les considérations se basent sur trois études empiriques récentes dans l’espace d'analyse, qui sont mises en rapport et contextualisées so-cio-culturellement et socio-économiquement dans le but de relever l'organisation spatiale, les motivations ainsi que d'autres facteurs contextuels des pratiques transfrontalières dans la Grande Région SaarLorLux. Dans cette approche, les flux de mobilité et les préférences spatiales sont reconstruits à partir des pratiques quotidiennes qui donnent un aperçu des réalités de vie transfrontalière dans la Grande Région SaarLorLux.

Spatial and identity research operates with differentiations and relations. These are particularly useful heuristic tools when examining border regions where social and geopolitical demarcations diverge. Applying this approach, the authors of this volume investigate spatial and identity constructions in cross-border contexts as they appear in everyday, institutional and media practices. The results are discussed with a keen eye for obliquely aligned spaces and identities and relinked to governmental issues of normalization and subjectivation. The studies base upon empirical surveys conducted in Germany, France, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Die Transformation landlicher Raume im westlichen Europa ist eng verbunden mit der europaischen Integration – und dabei vor allem mit der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik – sowie dem demographischen und sozialen Wandel, deren Richtlinien und Auswirkungen die Gesellschaft im landlichen Raum stark gepragt hat. Dies hat bereits seit den fruhen 1950er Jahren Auswirkungen auf die Entwicklungen in westdeutschen landlichen Regionen, wahrend in den ostdeutschen Regionen zunachst auf Grundlage der Kollektivierung und der sozialistischen Planwirtschaft andere Voraussetzungen existierten, auf die aber in diesem Kapitel nicht naher eingegangen werden soll.

Die Schengener Abkommen haben viele europäische Grenzen geöffnet und Grenzkontrollen verschwinden lassen. Der Effekt dieser Öffnung lässt sich besonders gut am Beispiel des deutsch-luxemburgischen Grenzraums beleuchten. Dort haben die nationalstaatlichen Grenzen ihre trennende Wirkung weitgehend eingebüßt, was sich u.a. in der sehr ausgeprägten Alltags- und Wohnmobilität widerspiegelt. Der Beitrag zeigt, dass die vielfältigen grenzüberschreitenden Praktiken die nationalen Grenzen zwar relativiert haben, diese aber in Form neuer Grenzziehungen fortbestehen. Dieser Zusammenhang von Aulösung und gleichzeitigem Fortbestand, wie er in der Denkigur der Phantomgrenze prgnant gefasst wird, soll am Beispiel der grenzüberschreitenden Wohnmigration untersucht werden. Die Zahl der Luxemburger, die ihren Wohnsitz in die deutschen Bundesländer Saarland und Rheinland-Pfalz verlagern, ist in den vergangenen Jahren deutlich gestiegen. Der Beitrag basiert auf Daten aus vier im saarländischen und rheinland-pfälzischen Grenzraum durchgeführten empirischen Studien, die sich auf methodisch unterschiedliche Art und Weise mit dieser Entwicklung befassen. Die Ergebnisse stimmen grundlegend darin überein, dass die massive Wohnmigration sowohl auf lokaler als auch auf regionaler Ebene neue räumliche Differenzierungen und soziale Grenzziehungen mit sich gebracht hat. Diese materialisieren und manifestieren sich in unterschiedlicher Weise: verkehrsgünstige vs. verkehrsungünstige Lage von Gemeinden, Neubaugebiete vs. Ortskerne, Autochthone vs. Allochthone, Luxemburger vs. Nicht-Luxemburger. In allen diesen Abgrenzungsvorgängen kommt die Persistenz nationaler Ordnungskategorien zum Ausdruck, und sie weisen somit auf das phantomhafte Fortbestehen der territorialen Grenzen im Allgemeinen sowie auf eine klare Inkongruenz von territorialen Grenzen und sozialen Grenzziehungen im Kontext von Wohnmigration im Besonderen hin. (Autrorenreferat) The Schengen Agreement have opened many European borders and allowed border controls to virtually disappear. The effect of this opening can be illustrated especially well with the example of the German-Luxembourgish border region. Here, national borders have largely lost their dividing effect, which is relected, amongst other things, in the very intensive daily mobility and residential mobility. This article shows that the diversity of the cross-border practices has relativised the national borders, which, however, persist in the form of new demarcations. This relationship of dissolvement and simultaneous continuity, as it is concisely described with the igure of thought phantom borders, will be examined by using example of cross-border residential migration. The number of Luxembourgers who recolate their residence to the German federal states of Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate has risen signiicantly in recent years. This article is based on data from four different empirical studies, which, using a variety of methods, were concerned with the developments of residential mobility in the border regions of Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate. The results are fundamentally in agreement that the massive residential migration has brought with it spatial differentiations and social demarcations on a local as well as on a regional level. These materialise and manifest themselves in different ways: easily accessible by public or private transport vs. not easily accessible; new residential developments vs. town and village centres, autochthonous vs. allochthonous, Luxembourgers vs. non-Luxembourgers. In all of these demarcation processes, the persistence of national categories is expressed, and they thus refer to the phantom-like continuity of territorial borders in general, as well as a clear incongruity of territorial borders and social demarcations in the context of residential migration in particular. (author's abstract)

In diesem Beitrag wird untersucht, wie praxistheoretische mit raumtheoretischen Überlegungen verknüpft und in eine Heuristik der kulturwissenschaftlichen Raumanalyse überführt werden können. Diese Fragestellung resultiert aus der Einsicht, dass Raum als ein emergenter Aspekt des Sozialen zu betrachten ist und dass er in den Border Studies noch weitgehend unterbestimmt ist. Unter Rückgriff auf verschiedene Raumkonzepte wird zunächst ein handlungstheoretisches Verständnis von Raum vorgestellt und praxistheoretisch reformuliert. Es bildet den Ausgangspunkt zur Entwicklung des Modells Räume der Grenze mit seinen Analysekategorien soziale Praktiken, praktisches Wissen sowie physisch-materiale und sozial-strukturelle Aspekte. Von besonderem heuristischen Nutzen erweisen sich die vielfältigen Verbindungen zwischen diesen Analysekategorien.

Grenzgänger sind ein populäres Thema in Luxemburg und in der Großregion. Dabei handelt es sich jedoch nicht ausschließlich um grenzüberschreitende Arbeitnehmer, sondern Grenzgänger werden zunehmend auch als Denkfigur in den modernen Kulturwissenschaften entdeckt. Der Beitrag deckt auf, was einen Grenzgänger ausmacht und weshalb sich der Begriff in seinem Facettenreichtum immer größerer Beliebtheit erfreut.

Biosphere reserves are considered as model regions for a sustainable development in which the relations between humans and the environment represent the focal point of research. However, only a few studies dealing with socio-economic questions have been carried out so far. Using the example of the still young Bliesgau biosphere reserve in Saarland, Germany, this contribution gives a first summary of its evaluation by the local population and first successes of the regional economy. The results of a quantitative survey provide information about the population’s awareness of institutions and offers, the disposition to actively participate and the perception of the Bliesgau biosphere reserve. Moreover, factors, which influence these aspects, are emphasized. By examining the regional economy, strengths and deficits, which inform about the regional added value, are pointed out additionally. The enforcement of regional economic cycles represents an important task in the Bliesgau biosphere reserve. Based on these results, our socio-economic studies provide the first basic principles and findings for future research as early as two years after the designation by UNESCO.

Luxembourg – international financial center, European administrative center, destination country for immigration? This empirical study provides insights about a society that has hitherto largely eluded scientific investigation and observes the processes of identity construction in globalised conditions. The interdisciplinary team of authors exposes the processes of subjective appropriations and institutional attributions at work in the fields of languages, spaces, perceptions of self and others as well as everyday cultures, and identifies for the first time socio-cultural milieus in the Grand Duchy. The findings of the three-year research project uncover the ambivalences and dynamics of a multicultural and multilingual society.

Anlässlich des 12. Gipfels der Großregion haben die Statistischen Ämter der Großregion die handliche Broschüre "Statistiques en bref – Statistische Kurzinformationen" aktualisiert. Die vor zehn Jahren erstmalig erschienene und etwa alle zwei Jahre neu aufgelegte Publikation präsentiert zentrale Sozial- und Strukturdaten der Teilgebiete der Großregion.1 Das weite Spektrum der Informationen der Informationen reicht von Gebiet und Bevölkerung, Beschäftigung und Arbeitslosigkeit über Gesellschaft, Wirtschaft, Verdienste und Preise bis hin zu Umwelt – aufgeschlüsselt nach Teilregionen und stets bemüht um eine Ausweisung der Daten, die regionale Vergleiche zulässt.