The experiences of cross-border cooperation (CBC), undertaken not only in Europe but throughout the world, have enabled areas to gain greater importance in recent decades at an international level, ...showing potential for integrative functions and joint development as exemplified by several CBC projects. The present paper assesses the impact of CBC projects by analyzing a protocol established in 2013 between the cities of Elvas and Badajoz, which induced the creation of the Eurocity Elvas-Badajoz. The paper kicks off with a critical review on territorial factors for success in CBC areas, considering the analysis of several case studies throughout Europe. The lessons learned, taken from the analyzed case studies, and the identified territorial success factors were used as assessment points for the investigation of the target study area, the Eurocity ElvasBadajoz. The investigation explores public participation perceptions towards the identification of what changes with respect to standards of life with the CBC project, providing the current state of affairs and identifying where to place efforts in order to reach sustainable development for the region. While being a transition area, it presents several opportunities for growth. These opportunities have not yet been object of analysis and debate with respect to lasting, sustainable successful growth. The present research enables the identification of several territorial factors for success in the study area, such as the connectivity/movement between cities and strong political commitment. From the identified critical factors, it was possible to highlight the importance of public transportation as a priority for achieving success in this CBC project.
This paper presents a methodology for the development of a preliminary inventory and data analysis of the immovable industrial heritage of the Guadiana Eurocity. The novelty of the work lies in ...creating strategies of heritage knowledge on an inter-municipal, transnational and cross-border scale that contemplates the industrial memory of the three municipalities that make up the Eurocity. For this purpose, we have used GIS technologies that have allowed us to record historical, architectural, anthropological and physical aspects in a spatial database. The results show that the three municipalities have a common historical, cultural and social identity, that their industrial past cannot be understood in isolation and that it provides the consideration of industrial heritage as a socioeconomic resource of the cross-border territory.
Este artigo apresenta a metodologia efetuada para a elaboração de um inventário preliminar e análise de dados do património industrial imóvel da Eurocidade do Guadiana. A novidade do trabalho reside na criação de estratégias de conhecimento patrimonial a uma escala intermunicipal, transnacional e transfronteiriça que contemple a memória industrial dos três municípios que compõem a Eurocidade. Para tal, recorremos a tecnologias SIG que nos permitiram registar aspetos históricos, arquitetónicos, antropológicos e físicos numa base de dados espacial. Os resultados mostram que os três municípios têm uma identidade histórica, cultural e social comum, que o seu passado industrial não pode ser entendido de forma isolada e que proporciona a consideração do património industrial como um recurso socioeconómico do território transfronteiriço.
Este artículo presenta la metodología llevada a cabo para la elaboración de un inventario preliminar y el análisis de datos del patrimonio industrial inmueble de la Eurociudad del Guadiana. La novedad del trabajo radica en crear estrategias de conocimiento patrimonial a una escala intermunicipal, transnacional y transfronteriza que contempla la memoria industrial de los tres municipios que conforman la Eurociudad. Para ello, hemos utilizado tecnologías SIG que nos ha permitido registrar en una base de datos espacial aspectos históricos, arquitectónicos, antropológicos y físicos. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto que los tres municipios poseen una identidad histórica, cultural y social comunes, que su pasado industrial no puede ser entendido de manera aislada y que brinda la consideración del patrimonio industrial como recurso socioeconómico del territorio transfronterizo.
This study presents a diagnostic analysis of the concept of the Eurocity. It aims to compare the initial intentions of the concept with its actual results from the perspective of a sustainable local ...development approach, particularly assessing the attention given to local governance and its potential for boosting this development paradigm. To this end, a range of internal documents and press reports of the Guadiana Eurocity were analyzed, and 15 in-depth interviews and one focus group were conducted with the main stakeholders involved in implementing local development policy in order to uncover the cognitive structure of their collective discourse and the potentials and expectations of the Eurocity. The results showed that the Guadiana Eurocity seemed to be the cross-border and European integration entity with the most legitimacy among these municipalities for carrying out sustainable local development strategies. Its structure and closeness to residents’ daily lives, however, were not sufficient guarantees of its success.
In this chapter, we draw upon work from the mobilities literature to develop an understanding of the contemporary politics of leisure mobilities in relation to borders and processes of rebordering. ...Borders, on the one hand, are commonly seen as inhibitors of mobilities, but changes in border processes have led to greater porosity enabling an increase in cross-border leisure practices for those cosmopolitan individuals with the time and money to travel. On the other hand, recent governmental responses to the refugee/asylum-seeker crisis and terrorist attacks have opened up new debates about reinforcing border controls. Such rebordering challenges the idea of a “borderless” Europe, which then leads to further leisure constraints. We discuss the politics of leisure mobilities through an analysis of the Basque Eurocity as an example of a geographical area in which cross-border leisure mobility has been enabled. We then analyse the politics of the contemporary European refugee crisis as an example of the increased securitisation of leisure mobilities.
La fin institutionnelle des frontières au sein de l'Union Européenne depuis 1992 a généré un large mouvement de construction de nouveaux territoires transfrontaliers. Entre l'idéologie d'une Europe ...des régions et la renaissance d'un territoire historique, le Pays Basque a connu un élan territorial inventif et puissant. C'est par «l'invention» d'une agglomération transfrontalière reliant Bayonne et Saint-Sébastien que les premiers pas ont été posés. Les acteurs publics lancés dans l'aventure ont mis en place les prémisses institutionnels d'une coopération entre deux entités jusque-là séparées pour aller vers une fusion territoriale urbaine. L'agglomération construite est un espace hétérogène fait de limites nouvelles se jouant de l'ancienne frontière internationale ; il semble que cette dernière n'existe plus que dans les pratiques et les représentations des résidents... mais n' est-ce pas un frein suffisant ?
The institutional end of the borders inside the European Union since 1992 has generated a big trend to new transborder territories. Between the ideology of an Europe of the regions and the revival of an historical territory, the "Pays Basque " experienced an important movement of territorial creation. The first steps were taken by the invention of transborder agglomeration linking Bayonne and San Sebastian. The public actors involved laid the institutional foundations of a cooperation between two hitherto separated entities with the goal of an urban territorial fusion. The so built agglomeration is an heterogeneous space made of new limits independent of the ancient international border. From now on the latter seems to exist only in the behaviour and the mind of the inhabitants, which indeed coul be a real brake to the evolution.
With the advent of smart cities (SCs), governance has been placed at the core of the debate on how to create public value and achieve a high quality of life in urban environments. In particular, ...given that public value is rooted in democratic theory and new technologies that promote networking spaces have emerged, citizen participation represents one of the principal instruments to make government open and close to the citizenry needs. Participation in urban governance has undergone a great development: from the first postmodernist ideals of countering expert dominance to today’s focus on learning and social innovation, where citizen participation is conceptualized as co-creation and co-production. Despite this development, there is a lack of research to know how this new governance context is taking place in the SC arena. Addressing this situation, in this article, we present an exhaustive survey of the research literature and a deep study of the experience in participative initiatives followed by SCs in Europe. Through an analysis of 149 SC initiatives from 76 European cities, we provide interesting insights about how participatory models have been introduced in the different areas and dimensions of the cities, how citizen engagement is promoted in SC initiatives, and whether the so-called creative SCs are those with a higher number of projects governed in a participatory way.
This article analyses how the transnational city network Eurocities engages in EU policies on migration and integration. Eurocities stands out from other cases through its autonomy and its clear ...objective to influence EU policies. To understand how the network operates as a policy entrepreneur, we analyse how cities and the Brussels-based secretariat collaborated in shaping the network's positions on migration and asylum - from the launch of the work on this dossier in 2001 to the 'Solidarity Cities' campaign in 2016. During this period, Eurocities' agenda developed, to some extent opportunistically, driven by institutional and thematic interests. We find that it had the highest impact during the refugee reception crisis, when the secretariat's facilitation work, technical exchanges between city representatives and the activism of local politicians converged creating a common narrative on how to tackle the crisis from a city-centred angle.
Transnational city networks (TCNs) bring together the characteristics of both supranationalisation and subnationalisation processes. In the context of an increased securitisation and criminalisation ...of borders, several networks have become more vocal - particularly with the advent of the so-called 'refugee crisis' - advocating for inclusive changes in terms of immigration, integration, human rights protection and refugee resettlement. How do French cities position themselves in this context of increased transnational activism? In comparing the cases of Lyon, Nantes and Strasbourg and their respective involvement in TCNs over the last fifteen years, our findings indicate that instead of becoming increasingly active, French cities within European networks have developed three distinct processes of disinvolvement, which we identify according to their 'neglectful,' 'testing,' and 'competing' characteristics. We highlight the fact that, in some cases, the activities undertaken by municipal or metropolitan governments in city networks do not automatically lead to transnational 'activism.' They may instead be understood as forms of 'passivism.' Moreover, contrary to passivity, 'passivism' in these cases does not equal an absence of decision-making, leadership or responsiveness, nor does it refer to inertia or a distinctive approach towards refugees and asylum seekers (whether it be welcoming or exclusionary). Rather, 'passivism' refers to the agency of local actors in policy-making within a specific institutional context. Focusing on passivism highlights (i) the necessity to disentangle networks' robustness from its membership, since networks might be robust despite the presence of disengaged members. It also underlines (ii) the effects of the politicisation of migration as illustrated by a change in agenda towards humanitarian issues and by the increased involvement of elected city officials, notably deputy mayors. Finally (iii), it stresses the lack of collaboration with civil society actors in the context of a greater visibility and activism of the French national state regarding the integration of newcomers.
PDF
