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The last two decades have seen an increase in the number and intensity of shocks and crises. The financial crisis of 2008/2009 and the COVID-19 crisis of 2020/2021 have led to economic recessions. During the COVID-19 crisis, national borders and the impact of crises in border regions were often the subject of political debate and media coverage. Border-regional resilience has only been discussed in the academic discourse for the last few years. This article uses a diverse set of socio-economic indicators to examine the (border)–regional resilience of German regions in the wake of the financial crisis and the COVID-19 crisis. A distinction is made between border and non-border regions, urban and rural regions, and regions in the old and new German federal states. The results show, first, that the COVID-19 crisis had a stronger socio-economic impact than the financial crisis. Second, border regions tended to be more affected by the financial crisis than non-border regions. Surprisingly, this was not the case for the border-specific COVID-19 crisis. Moreover, the study shows that it is not so much the border location that determines regional resilience, but rather the socio-economic level, the degree of urbanization and the associated embeddedness in global networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ladakh region of India has been recently in the limelight due to border tension between India and China. The differing perception of borders and vague demarcation has led to contested claims in the Ladakh region. India and China have fought a war (1962) and are presently engaged in intermittent skirmishes in the Ladakh region. Following the conflict, the borderland of Ladakh witnessed increased troop presence in the area, which created problems for the Changpas, a semi-nomadic community of Ladakh that is primarily dependent on available natural resources for survival. The political tension between India and China leads to the militarisation of the region and restrictions on the movement of Changpas near the borders. These have unintended consequences for the borderland community. The areas with counter-territorial claims include pastures for grazing the herds, and due to the dispute, the Changpas cannot access them. As a result, Changpas suffer economically and socially. While there is much discussion on the India and China border dispute in the region and beyond, the Changpas hardly get required attention in the mainstream debate. Drawing from Border Studies, this article argues that Changpas are an alienated borderland community. Changpas, because of their semi-nomadic lifestyles, lack an agency to highlight their plight or to articulate demands. This article underlines the ordeals of Changpas to present how border communities in conflict zones are compelled to adopt a life forced by circumstances and controlled by external actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article, the necessity of the Armed Forces metamodel was analyzed on the criteria of the centralization of the sovereign state and the formation of a democratic civil society. The security of the border against the background of army building, including having a sacred meaning, has been proven with references and analyzed from a scientific-philosophical as well as a theological point of view. İn the article, the values of the border model in terms of an abstract approach, the importance of the democratic state and society in the prism of the multi-centered concept are elaborated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID‐19 pandemic and the 2021 military coup have dramatically affected the lives and livelihoods of communities across Myanmar. Border areas in the north of the country also suffered from the prolonged closure of the Chinese border due to PRC COVID containment measures. The city of Ruili, the main trading hub between the two countries, witnessed one of China's strictest series of lockdowns, and its border with Myanmar remained largely closed for over 1,000 days. This impacted not only cross‐border businesses, but also forced thousands of temporary migrants to return to Myanmar. To address the impacts of those multiple and overlapping crises, this paper investigates the case of Kachin amber: a gemstone extracted in Kachin State's Hukawng valley, in the northernmost part of the country, which has generated significant business with China since the early 2010s. Over the past decade, many in Kachin State became involved in the amber business, from mining to polishing and trading, and a large marketplace had been set up in the outskirts of Myitkyina to facilitate the trade with China. Based on interviews with miners and traders conducted in 2021–2022, in both Myitkyina and the Hukawng valley, this paper provides an initial assessment of the impact of COVID‐19, the coup, and border closure on the amber industry in Kachin State. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary revisits the main elements of Paasi's ideas about the institutionalisation of regions and bounded spaces. It reviews his analysis of the identity of a region and the regional identity of its residents (as addressed in his TESG 2002 article). Next, it discusses how his work on bounded spaces contributed to the reinvention of border studies in political geography and how his innovative conceptual work grounded in and written from Finland, was inspiring for a whole generation of researchers working at the margins of the Anglo‐American academic world. Finally, it reasserts the enduring value of his heuristic framework in a time where the complexity of social spatialisation and of spatial socialisation has greatly increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The paper presents materials from the Polish-Belarusian-Lithuanian borderland dating from the beginning of the 20th century, deposited in the Department of Contextual Documentation of Cultures (archive) of the Seweryn Udziela Ethnographic Museum in Krakow. Their brief review and analysis of the dialectal lexemes show the value of historical materials collected by nonprofessional linguists for research on historical multilingualism and the current sociolinguistic situation at language borders, especially on the problems of mixed, transitional, and mixed-transitional dialects. The analysis of dialect lexemes demonstrates that the manuscripts also preserved forms which are not registered in the known lexicographic sources and dialect atlases. Therefore, these materials represent a novelty in studies on the language interference at the borderland in the field of Belarusian and Polish dialects, as well as in studies of border dialects as a language system of the micro-area of the Polish-Belarusian--Lithuanian borderland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Omran for Social Sciences is the property of Arab Center for Research & Policy Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Die jüdische „Prager deutsche“ Schriftstellerin Lenka Reinerová (1916–2008) wurde 2005 als “Kafka’s last living heir” bezeichnet. Trotz dieses ruhmreichen Erbes zweifelt man zuweilen am (literarischen) Wert ihrer Prosa. Die gegenwärtige Statistik der UNHCR für Flüchtlinge, die explizit Vergleiche zur weltweiten Flüchtlingslage nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg zieht, zwingt jedoch zu einem erneuten Lesen von vielen Werken Reinerovás, einschließlich der beiden, die in diesem Artikel analysiert werden sollen, Grenze geschlossen (1958) and Alle Farben der Sonne und der Nacht (2003). Die jüngsten Stimmen der Critical Refugee Studies (CRS) und Border Studies wollen die Grenzerfahrungen von am Rand stehenden und gefährdeten Gruppen ans Licht bringen. In den zwei hier behandelten Werken begegnet die als überzeugte Kommunistin auftretende Ich-Erzählerin geschlossenen Grenzen – in der Form von Landesgrenzen, Gefängnismauern und Ideologiengrenzen – die dann aufgelöst werden. Eine Brücke zu Reinerovás Werk zu schlagen, kann die gegenwärtige Diskussion über Grenzpoetik bereichern. Statt einem andauernden Misstrauen Grenzen gegenüber zu verfallen, zeigt Reinerová, dass Grenzenlosigkeit wieder eingegrenzt werden muss. Mit ihrem scheinbar nostalgischen Blick auf die Vergangenheit erinnert sie ihre Leser*innen daran, dass Menschen Traditionen des Denkens und der Taten angehören, auch wenn sie bedrängt, umstritten, angeschlagen sind, und dass manches gerettet und erneuert werden soll.

This paper discusses the secrecies of border spirits within 20th century Finnish belief narratives. The aim is to explore how and in which contexts the imaginary aspects of border spirit narratives link to the idea of the "power of storytelling". The following study touches on areas such as the suspension of the fantasy and sociopolitical aspects within the narratives. The folklore materials focus mainly on the Finnish heartland and partly on the national borders. Especially, narrative research methods were used to analyse what is heard and seen of the border spirits and what contexts these narratives involve. Moreover, the results touch on the dynamics of belief narratives without limiting them to the territorial aspects of borders. Hence, the study also explores interpretative bridges between folklore and border studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This portfolio attempts to express the expanding concept of borders, and boundaries through photographic images of objects and situations taken from various contexts, often unrelated to the geopolitical sphere. Scrutinizing borders and boundaries for the past several years as part of a funded project and realizing that borders are omnipresent and all-pervading led me to 'see' borders everywhere. And so, I started photographing real and potential border markers and manifestations in the urban everyday. Sometimes they refer to very manifest aspects of borders and in other cases, they are just subtle hints, or even purely metaphorical emanations, originating from a visually present reality, and purposefully framed to support the distinct notions and aspects of borders and boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identity politics has garnered much criticism and debate over its efficacy as a tool for political organizing and mobilization amongst marginalized communities. A central critique of identity politics cautions that its essentializing tendencies can reify or reduce constructions of identity as an individualized category (Gimenez 2006, Carroll 2017, McGowan 2020). Marie Moran has similarly remarked on the ways in which neoliberalism has undermined identity in such a way that it, "has exaggerated the personal sense of identity over the social to such an extent that we have now reached a point in time where identity operates primarily to facilitate consumption on a global scale" (2018, 40). In doing so, identity as a politic is oftentimes limiting and not necessarily utilized in ways that echo shared histories amongst a group of people but instead connotes a false sense of representation and individual consumption under larger capitalist logics. This article ultimately finds itself negotiating the question of identity politics and grappling with both its efficacy for political mobilizations as well as centering debates inherent to it. Thinking about this conundrum within contemporary political organizing prompts turning to Cathy Cohen's question, "When and how are stable collective identities necessary for social action and social change?" (Cohen 1997, 439). I direct this inquiry towards the collective advocacy of Justicia Fronteriza, an El Paso, Texas based, progressive, political action committee. I argue that the group's utility of identity politics in their organizing work is emblematic of the ways in which marginalized communities, specifically, racialized communities along the US-México border, both make use of and continue to challenge limitations inherent within identity politics as a tool for political mobilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of behavioral practices of children in borderlands intersects two pivotal historical-anthropological research domains: childhood history and border studies. This article delves into unattended border crossings by children in the Karelian region of the Russian-Finnish borderlands during the 1920s. We present the results from an analysis of the two source sets housed in the Republic of Karelia National Archives. These sources comprise formal documents: questionnaire forms completed by teenagers upon their return from Finland and records from interrogations conducted by children’s social security bodies and national security agencies. We identified the factors and circumstances surrounding the illegal movements of underage citizens across the Russian-Finnish borderlands. Our findings reveal that the majority of these young border trespassers were ethnic Karelian teenage boys from borderland villages. The reasons and motivations for crossing the border from Russia to Finland, and subsequently returning home, evolved over time. While personal survival was the primary motivation during the civil war, in more peaceful times, the prevalent drive to go to Finland was economic – to earn money to improve living conditions for both the individual and their parents, reflecting a family survival strategy. We also detail how authorities addressed these transgressions. We conclude that the behavioral practices of these children, in violating national borders, depict them as autonomous actors on one side, yet also highlight their profound dependence on the immediate environment, shaped by its unique political, social, and geographical nuances, on the other.

The present paper addresses some intriguing conceptual and historical implications of the notion of border arising from ontology, mereology, topology, and logic. On such seemingly abstract bases, it proceeds to presenting some philosophical reflections on the ethical and political dimensions of the same notion, fostering the idea that extant national and international institutions, and human rights law in particular, ought to be utilised to their full extent in order to deal with global migration-related challenges.

The border is a dangerous and ambiguous concept to deal with. Following an historical-juridical analysis of the evolution of the concept of border, the author explains what in his judgment is a proper connection that the concept of border must establish: (1) to overcome barriers, in respect of both the actors of changing traditions and customs, and in order to encourage integration and growth in the society as a whole; (2) to cleanse the concept of border from nationalist and supremacist ideas, so as to achieve a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society; (3) the right to immigration as a fully recognised universal human right.

The objective of the article is to discuss the problems of education in the Peruvian-Chilean border context. For this, the field work was located during the second half of 2022 in the city of Tacna. Methodologically, a qualitative strategy was developed based on semi-structured interviews aimed at border actors such as merchants, transporters and teachers. The results of the research show that the problem between education and border mobility acquires particularities in the context of emigration or the city of origin. The latter, unlike previous scientific production, which has placed greater emphasis on the educational problem in relation to immigration, the place of migratory destination or mobility. Likewise, research evidence invites us to critically rethink the concept of border mobility, considering the shift in mobility, interconnected mobility and the mobility of knowledge in the border context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Border regions have often been analyzed regarding cohesion and convergence. However, their development in times of crisis is a relatively new field of interest. This study combines convergence and resilience measurement and explores how both concepts relate. The empirical operationalization is a time series based on GDP trends since the financial crisis for all European border and non-border regions. Firstly, results show that border regions have a lower resistance than non-border regions, but they show a higher recoverability. This finding calls for policy reflections on how to improve short-term resistance in border regions. Secondly, the overall convergence trends are more positive in border regions than in non-border regions. This finding reflects a general catching-up process due to border liberalization and cohesion policy. Thirdly, the more convergent the national state, the more resilient its border regions tend to be. Finally, this study shows that border regions must be seen as territorial objects with high potential and often a strength, but short-term vulnerability is highly relevant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Kronika is the property of Kronika, Casopis za Slovensko Krajevno Zgodovino and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Arte, Individuo y Sociedad is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article presents a synthesis of the sociolinguistic situation of the Polish-Belarusian borderland, on the territory of the former parish of Usnar. Field studies were conducted systematically in the years 2015-2020 and irregularly in the years 2021-2023. The author employed an original method based on using museum fund. The paper focuses on the influence of the border (the state one, as well as other types of borders) on the sociolinguistic situation of the microarea. Particularly noteworthy is the persistent division into settlements of the petty nobility and villages, along with the corresponding language codes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author aims to briefly analyze the objective reasons for the growing interest in studying political, administrative, and cultural borders (border studies), which has over the past 30 years turned into an important interdisciplinary field, and the progress of their theory. Diverse approaches to study of borders can be divided into two large types: pragmatic and critical. The traditional pragmatic approach, based on analysis of border functions and mainly using historical cartographic, comparative typological, and statistical methods, has been significantly developed due to attention towards actors, in addition to the state: local authorities, business, NGOs, etc. The information base has been significantly enriched, and understanding of the importance of cross-border cooperation and border-related social practices has increased. The critical approach is aimed at studying the cognitive–symbolic functions of borders associated with their perception, representation as sign systems, the politics of memory, and discourse and narratives. Today, pragmatic and critical approaches are integrated, including in the practice–policy–perception model. To a large extent, influenced by geopolitical shifts in recent years, seven key topics have emerged in the growing flow of border studies, including analysis of the role of borders as a tool for controlling international migration and regulating other social processes, the widespread activation of the barrier function of borders at different levels, redistribution of functions between them, etc. One direction for further development of border research is noted: study of the relationship and isomorphism of borders at different levels. According to the author, isomorphism means the similarity of the functions of formal (state, administrative) borders at all levels, although in different ways and in different proportions. The reason for this similarity is that borders act as a means of adapting space to the redistribution of political influence between different actors and centers, changes in the geopolitical position, and territorial distribution of the population and the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Just as necropower discriminates between those who can and those who cannot live, post-mortem circumstances are explicitly affected by an irrefutable gentrification of memory and grievability. Drawing on the political dimension of mourning and on the concept of slow death, this paper proposes a necropolitical reading of All They Will Call You (2017), where Tim Z. Hernandez revisits the 1948 plane crash that killed 28 Mexican deportees at Los Gatos (California) and the subsequent oblivion that prevented their memorialisation except for a mass grave containing their remains and a protest song ("Deportees") composed by Woody Guthrie. My analysis focuses on Hernandez's attempts at dismantling the tropes of criminality and expendability that Latino immigrants are associated with as a result of their racialised vulnerability, which are distinctively aggravated in border contexts. Excavating in the background stories of these deportees seems to me an ironic contestation to the failed forensic work that left them unnamed and unritualised for seven decades. And, at the same time, I contend that, in line with the work of many activists and artists in the US–Mexico border, Hernandez mobilises solidarity while transforming our perception of migrant bare lives into one of migrant agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although young people are recognized as stakeholders who should be involved in public participation, engagement by youth advocates in local development and decision-making is scarce. Young people’s input tends to be seen as less valuable, especially when the prevailing positions on development overemphasize economic interests. This article is based on research conducted in rural border regions in mainland Portugal. We conducted semi-structured interviews with representatives of the municipalities (n = 36), a questionnaire (n = 3968) and biographical interviews with young people (n = 50). The results suggest that young people see themselves as capable of contributing to the development of their regions, whilst demonstrating innovative views, with some even proposing a paradigm shift that encompasses a new way of thinking about sustainability and quality of life. We argue that local bodies of governance would benefit from an intentional involvement of young people in local policy making processes, especially when they are focused on local development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, a broad and multidisciplinary literature has emerged at the intersection of critical border and migration studies, critical security studies, and science and technologies studies (STS). This literature has produced a rich conceptual repertoire for the analysis of digital technologies and infrastructures of border control and mobility governance. This scenario conceptually maps some of the core strands in this debate, which portray borders as complex and multi-located arrangements that create spaces of control and circulation, notions and images of “trusted” and/or “risky” travelers, and a globalized hierarchy of mobility rights. Furthermore, the scenario reflects on some major research avenues for STS to intervene in this debate and expose how border regimes are today imagined, designed, maintained, and critiqued.

This paper focuses on the memoryscapes of Cieszyn Silesia, Orawa and Spisz in a context of the border conflicts of the twentieth century. The regions located on the current Czech-Polish and Slovak-Polish border have lived through paralleled histories of the border demarcation after WWI, which was unprecedented there. In both cases the national minorities were left behind the border, outside of their home states. Their stories and memories are, however, not being researched together. This paper contrasts the patterns of memory production related to the border shifts in the landscape in both regions. Emphasis is placed on the memory sites, their narratives and memory activism related to the conflicting past. The results show that the main axes of both memory debates are contrasting. While the conflict over Cieszyn Silesia was most shaped by the short war in 1919, the lesser-known dispute over Orawa and Spisz was marked by numerous smaller incidents, assimilation efforts and a layer of post WWII violence. This has important consequences for the memory production. The other important differentiating factor is the scope of memory activism inside of the national minority group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this text, prospected on the aegis of border studies, with a focus on the Geography field, the border cities of Santana do Livramento, in Brazil, and Rivera, in Uruguay, are the study object. The research is conducted on three work fronts: 1) the difference between the concepts of boundaries and borders; 2) the examination of the historical origins that characterize the formation process of these cities and their surrounding areas; 3) the implications of political, economic and cultural dynamics in the daily practices of the cities inhabitants. From within these work fronts, the border is understood as a totality, as a social place experienced and resized in its symbolic and imaginary aspects, represented by interactions based on citizenship, binationality, daily movements and the local community needs. The methodology is bibliographic research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the related projects of child as method and childism, as two critical childhood projects attempting to re‐engage childhood studies with wider geopolitical arenas. Firstly, each model's origins in their respective subject discipline are discussed, to, secondly, highlight how this shapes convergences as well as divergences in political project. Third, there is consideration of what is at stake in key conceptual tensions identified. It is suggested that the differences of address and contrasting (disciplinary and conceptual) sites of intervention work in complementary ways to strengthen the broader project of embedding childhood studies within sociopolitical theories and practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The formation of an independent Ukrainian state in 1991 posed some important historiographical questions to scholars. Starting with the collapse of the Ussr, the nation-building effort immediately involved history as well: it was necessary to separate the history of Ukraine from that common to the rest of the Soviet space and, at the same time, deal with national history. In the Ukrainian case, the attempt to employ the model of national histories – on which Western contemporary historiography was formed between the 19th and 20th centuries – was problematic, since the different territories of Ukraine came from multiple historical experiences. The essay analyzes the attempts made by historians to find an interpretative paradigm that would account for the complexity of Ukrainian history. Teleological vision, essentialism, ethnocentricity, ethnic exclusivity, linearity and absolutization of the historical continuity are the greatest risks that historiography has run into. Conversely, the regional approach and the inclusion of Ukrainian history in global history, seem to open new research perspectives and provide new interpretative keys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Education Policy Analysis Archives / Archivos Analíticos de Políticas Educativas / Arquivos Analíticos de Políticas Educativas is the property of Educational Policy Analysis Archives & Education Review and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Cografya Fakültesi Dergisi DTCF Dergisi is the property of Ankara Universitesi Dil ve Tarih-Cografya Fakultesi (DTCF Dergisi) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The ever-changing, always porous Mexican-U.S. border region has long been the site of intense and productive cultural and political exchange of every kind, particularly with respect to music. Today, mariachi performance in the United States provides a counternarrative to the discourse of anti-immigrant, anti-Mexican hate language deployed by Donald Trump and his supporters. Accordingly, the rapid spread of interest and proficiency in the production of mariachi music performed by Latino and non-Latino students in schools across the Southwest and as far northeast as New England can be thought of as a kind of social movement. Two case studies—the first a program developed by a Mexican American instructor working predominantly with Mexican American children in an overwhelmingly Anglo town in Connecticut and the second serving an ethnically diverse elementary school in Central New York State where neither the instructor nor more than a few current students are Latino—suggest the potential of this movement for breaking down ethnic and racial barriers. El siempre cambiante y siempre poroso espacio de la frontera México-Estados Unidos ha sido, durante mucho tiempo, el sitio de un intenso y productivo intercambio cultural y político de todo tipo, particularmente con respecto a la música. Hoy en día, las actuaciones de mariachis en los Estados Unidos nos brindan una contranarrativa al discurso del lenguaje de odio antiinmigrante y antimexicano desplegado por Donald Trump y sus partidarios. En consecuencia, la rápida difusión del interés y la creciente competencia en la producción de música de mariachi interpretada por estudiantes latinos y no latinos en escuelas de todo el suroeste de los Estados Unidos y tan al noreste como Nueva Inglaterra puede considerarse una especie de movimiento social. Dos estudios de caso, el primero un programa desarrollado por un instructor mexicoamericano que trabaja predominantemente con niños mexicoamericanos en una ciudad abrumadoramente anglosajona en Connecticut, y el segundo involucrando a una escuela primaria étnicamente diversa en el centro del estado de Nueva York, donde ni el instructor ni la mayor parte de los estudiantes actuales son latinos, sugieren el potencial de este movimiento para romper barreras étnicas y raciales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the secrecies of border spirits within 20th century Finnish belief narratives. The aim is to explore how and in which contexts the imaginary aspects of border spirit narratives link to the idea of the “power of storytelling”. The following study touches on areas such as the suspension of the fantasy and sociopolitical aspects within the narratives. The folklore materials focus mainly on the Finnish heartland and partly on the national borders. Especially, narrative research methods were used to analyse what is heard and seen of the border spirits and what contexts these narratives involve. Moreover, the results touch on the dynamics of belief narratives without limiting them to the territorial aspects of borders. Hence, the study also explores interpretative bridges between folklore and border studies.

The escalation of the Soviet–Yugoslav conflict and the tense Hungarian–Yugoslav relationship had a fundamental impact on the lives of those living near the Hungarian–Yugoslav border. The aim of this study is to examine how the conflict affected the daily lives of those living near the border, examining the area from today’s Slovenian–Austrian–Hungarian border triangle to the confluence of the Drava and Mura rivers. The article sheds light on the various forms of border incidents, it shows how the conflict made the daily lives of those living near the border difficult, and it briefly illustrates the spying activities. The conclusions are primarily based on the papers of the National Border Guard Command kept in the National Archives of Hungary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the phenomenon of border in changing historical reality of two distant territories, that is important today due to the increasing interest in “border studies” as a new interdisciplinary scientific field that combines history, geography, political science and philological research at the turn of 21st century. The study involves folklore and literary works, the plots of which are localized on the borders between Russia and China: the South-East of Siberia and the Far East (Transbaikalia), the USA and Mexico: the U. S. South-West (New Mexico, Texas, California). The purpose of the article is to identify typological convergence and differences in the artistic depiction of these boundary loci in the context of their historical development. The methodological basis of the research is made up of works devoted to the geocultural and geopoetic aspects of literary studies. The article uses cultural and historical, comparative and typological, structural and semiotic methods and axiological text analysis. It is confirmed that essential geopoetic principle of the Russian-Chinese and Mexican-American borderland texts is antithesis built on the opposition of “friend/foe”. It was revealed that folklore and literary texts demonstrate convergences in the geopoetic image of the border: boundless space considered basic element of imagery and a certain type of strong and active “border hero”. Differences in the depiction of the images result from the peculiarities of the historical process and, accordingly, the different value priorities. Prospects for the research can be associated with the expansion of the “border studies” field by means of history and philology integration.