The multifaceted economic and political geographies of internal and external eu borders

[i]2010 European Conference of the Association for Borderlands Studies[/i] 23-25 September 2010 Veroia, Greece The rapidly changing contemporary global political economy as exemplified by the pervasive and interconnected forces of regionalization and globalization, poses particular challenges for border regions. In particular, the changing status and roles of borders severely affect their economic and social functions. Inside the EU, the gradual ‘softening’ of borders leads regions around them in a very peculiar condition: on the one hand, the peripherality in relation to the respective national core is progressively replaced by a new sense of - geographic - centrality, which is very often far from equivalent to functional centrality. On the other hand, border regions need to reinvent themselves: with their role as barriers fading they need to reposition themselves in relation to their national centers, and their newly found - close and distant - neighbors. Elsewhere in the world, the balance between regionalization and globalization is very different, introducing distinct challenges to the economic functions of borders and their regions. At the same time, all borders are becoming increasingly penetrable to flows of people, goods, ideas and images originating from neighboring as well as distant countries. These flows have a considerable impact on the perception of identity of those living around the borders, as well as on the notion of the ‘other’, having given rise to a considerable array of policy responses. Although the central theme of the Conference will be the qualitative and quantitative assessment of the economic and political geographies of borders, other papers, dealing with a wide array of aspects related to borders, are also welcome. For more information: http://plandevel.web.auth.gr/en/conference/index.htm