Bulletin n. 2/2007
October 2007
CONTENTS
  • Section A) The theory and practise of the federal states and multi-level systems of government
  • Section B) Global governance and international organizations
  • Section C) Regional integration processes
  • Section D) Federalism as a political idea
    • Rumford Chris
    Does Europe Have Cosmopolitan Borders?
    in Globalizations , Volume 4, Issue 3 September 2007 ,  2007 ,  327-339
    Current thinking on Europe's borders is characterised by a tension between, on the one hand, the idea of 'network Europe', in which the importance of internal borders is much reduced as a result of the flows and mobilities characteristic of the single market and the 'four freedoms', and, on the other, the idea that Europe is being 'rebordered' as the result of security concerns over the threat of terrorism, illegal immigration, trafficking in drugs and people, and so forth. As a result there is a tension between the idea of Europe as a space of networked mobility and a 'fortress Europe' of securitized threats. It is argued that cosmopolitanism can offer another perspective on Europe's borders that takes us beyond debates on networks and territorial security. A cosmopolitanism perspective focuses on the importance of borders and border crossings in our daily lives and argues that borders and mobilities are not antithetical: borders also facilitate connectedness and mobility, albeit in a selective way. What is a border to some is a gateway to others. The paper will focus on the multiplicity of borders in contemporary Europe: the dispersal of borders throughout society alluded to by Balibar; the idea of 'borderlands' as new spaces of EU governance; and the mobility of borders themselves. The paper will also deal centrally with the question of 'who borders?', arguing that in contemporary Europe (and elsewhere) bordering is no longer the preserve of nation-states: societies, citizens, advocacy groups, and supra-national institutions are also implicated in processes of bordering and rebordering.
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