Cross-border-cooperation in the Upper Adriatic: A new kind of citizenship?

Abstract

The 1990s witnessed a strong debate around the emergence of a new kind of citizenship in Europe. This article analyses the ways in which identity and citizenship are being reshaped in cross-border areas following the implementation of European Union Cross Border Cooperation (CBC) programmes, with reference to the Upper Adriatic area. First, it offers a brief theoretical background on citizenship. Second, it investigates how different cross-border grass-roots stakeholders relate to each other in the process of implementing CBC projects and how, through their interaction, construct new meanings, interests and values and revisit their identities. It concludes by arguing that the constant interaction between societal and political cross-border actors at the local elite level is leading to greater mutual understanding, long-term transnational initiatives and an increasing emphasis on shared interests and values.

Establishing cross-border co-operation between professional organizations: Police, fire brigades and emergency health services in Dutch border regions

“…Klatt and Herrmann, 2011; Medeiros, 2010, 2013; Nelles and Durand, 2014; Perkmann, 1999, 2003, 2005; Pikner, 2008). A variety of studies have looked at the genesis of CBRs and the extent to which they pose a challenge to ‘traditional’ government structures, which are confined to individual nation states (Blatter, 2001; Hansen and Serin, 2010; Johnson, 2009; Nadalutti, 2012). Yet, cross-border co-operation in the fields of policing, fire fighting and emergency health is not necessarily linked to CBRs.…”

Stakeholder viewpoints on facilitation of cross-border cooperation

“…For this viewpoint, there is no specific concern about the relationship between cooperation and knowledge creation, suggesting no major obstacles in the case study region. A case study in the Upper Adria cross-border region between Slovenia and Italy found that previous cross-border cooperation programmes fostering cultural integration led to an increase of linkages and the formation of a new network among different nationalities, including minority groups of the neighbouring region (Nadalutti 2014). Results also showed the formation of a 'new' cultural identity which goes beyond nationality, i.e.…”

De-and re-bordering the Alpine Space: how Cross-border Cooperation Intertwines Spatial and Institutional Patterns of Exclusion and Inclusion, Subordination and Horizontality

“…Consequently, cross-border networks promise to overcome the principle of separation that underlies territories and the differentiation between the governmental and the nongovernmental sector (Nadalutti 2014;Podadera Rivera and Calderón Vázquez 2017) and the principle of subordination that underlies scalar and political hierarchies (Harguindéguy and Bray 2009; Nadalutti 2012). At the same time, they remain limited by and closely linked to established patterns and boundaries (Nelles and Durand 2014;Svensson 2015).…”