18th Border Regions in Transition (BRIT XVIII)
Borderlands, Cooperation and Transformation in Times of Uncertainty
The 18th Border Regions in Transition conference coincides with a period of exceptional social and political instability. We appear to have reached several turning points simultaneously – not only in environmental terms, but also regarding economic, demographic, social, and geopolitical processes.
Despite this backdrop of uncertainty, the conference upholds the BRIT network’s philosophy that borderlands are fluid social realities and permeable frontiers capable of fostering change, hybridization, and community-building.
Borderlands serve as interfaces between “us” and “them”, between sameness and difference. Borders and borderlands create unique social conditions that make border communities distinctive, while also carrying the potential to become spaces of contestation, nationalization, and conflict.
BRIT XVIII will provide a forum for investigating borderlands as interactive social spaces shaped by encounters between different cultural, social, and political realities in everyday life.
A key contextual focus of this conference is the complexity of borders and borderlands within the post-Yugoslav and post-conflict regional setting. Opportunities for cross-border and regional cooperation in the Western Balkans are influenced by structural, cultural, and perceptual dimensions of security.
Within this context, the role of external regional actors, particularly the European Union and Türkiye, remains highly significant.
Call for Abstracts
We warmly welcome abstracts from scholars representing a wide range of social science and humanities disciplines, as well as civil society advocates and practitioners.
One of the primary objectives of the conference is to achieve geographical diversity and conceptual multiplicity.
While participation is not restricted to any specific topic, we particularly encourage submissions addressing:
- Transformations in borderlands
- Cross-border cooperation
- Post-conflict borderlands
- Geographical imaginations and imaginaries
- Migration, borders and borderlands
- Culture and borderlands
