EXLINEA: Lines of exclusion as arenas of cooperration. Policies, Practicies, Perceptions

Over the last decade the conventional cartography of nation-states delineated by hard and fast boundaries has begun to be challenged by the emergence of new cross border cooperative alliances. No longer the exclusive domains of national governments, international relations are being defined by regions, cities, interest groups and enterprise networks.

Assuming that the development of cross-border interaction mechanisms is a vital element in dealing with the political and socio-economic challenges of EU expansion, EXLINEA examines opportunities and constraints to local/regional cross-border co-operation in CEE. State borders are viewed as socio-political constructs whilst cross-border region building is conceptualised as a process of formal and informal integration conditioned by overlying policies, co-operation practices and perceptions of the significance of cross-border interaction.
The core focus of this research is to study cross-border interaction processes and patterns as a result of policies at various levels and established forms of co-operation practices, conditioned by the perceptions of various public and private actors.

The work will be carried out over a 36-month period. After a short preparatory phase work will centre around three successive empirical steps, the synthesis of data and dissemination activities. Project management (incl. the production of a final report) will be treated as separate work package.

Milestones consist of workshops (discussion of cumulative results with various actor groups, experts, officials and practitioners), interim and final reports. Expected results include: uncovering relations between EU and national policies and local-level co-operation practices; enhancing conceptual clarity and comparability through analysing political, socio-economic and discursive dimensions of cross-border interaction, and generating hypotheses to facilitate future research.