Social planning and European contact areas: political geography in place

Abstract

The article deals with the issue of planning social and spatial integration in the so-called contact areas, where different political and cultural units meet and interlace. The study of such areas copes both with the persistent and immanent forms of territoriality in human beings and increasing quests for functional social, economic and spatial (re)integration. Both trends lead towards a multi-level and often contradictory relationship between different territories and borders, which emerge from the simultaneously developing processes of social and spatial convergence and divergence. For this reason, both theory and practice of political geography are permanently challenged by shifting policies of integration and/or separation, and social and spatial planning in European multicultural and border regions appears to be a difficult, almost Sisyphean task. Yet, it is central to the creation of more stable opportunities for both coexistence and development. This article provides a review of author’s considerations of political geographical transformations and issues related to European contact areas in the pre-modern, modern and post-modern period, with special emphasis on minorities and cross-border cooperation, suggesting to promote an integrative and multilevel approach that could somehow replace the classic "national" policies in relation to border areas development and minority protection.