Globalization and the transformation of Europe’s borders

Chris Rumford, University of London

Globalization has not led to a ‘borderless world’. Rather, globalization has led both to a proliferation of borders and their diffusion throughout society. In Europe, the transformation of borders has also been driven by processes associated with EU integration, leading to a tension between the need to remove borders (as barriers to trade and mobility) and the need to reinstall borders in the face of perceived security threats from terrorists, drug traffickers and illegal immigrants.

Four seminars are planned in the series, scheduled to take place between September 2007 and May 2009. The first seminar focuses on theoretical innovation in understanding globalization and borders in the European context, and to this end it explores the networked, diffuse, differentiated and mobile nature of borders. Following this the seminar series proceeds to focus on three key issues central to the study of the impact of globalization on borders in Europe: the idea of networked borders and the regulation of mobility; the emergence of new external frontiers represented by the idea of borderlands; and the global dynamics of transnational regions, which requires a new appreciation of the relationship between regions and European integration.