The past years have witnessed a growing interest towards social aspects of state borders. The disappearance of the "iron curtain" has resulted not only in the transformation of European borders but has dramatically changed the very meaning of these borders.

This volume of the Working Papers of the CISR includes papers presented at the International workshop in Narva (Estonia) which was held in November, 1998. The geographical position of Narva, a city situated on the new Russian - Estonian border, allowed the participants to have an immediate experience of inequality, created be the very existence of national borders: their was a substantial discrepancy in the procedure of crossing the border for people from different countries. To receive visas they had to undergo different red tape procedures, pay different amounts of money and submit different documents. The structure of the border, its organization, and crossing rules reflect to a great extent the internal features of the societies lying on both of its sides.

The main aim of the workshop was the development of border researchers' network. Discussing the results of practical research carried out in the borderland areas of Eastern Europe the participants focused on the recent changes brought about by opening the old borders and setting up the new ones.

State borders nowadays not only separate countries, and present the outposts of different political, cultural and economic systems, but they have also become "meeting points" of these systems, centers for interstate cooperation, and crossroads of different coping strategies and social practices. Thus social scientists begin to view borderland not as a territory, consisting of two separate areas on both sides of the border line, but as a social whole. Traditional approach to border studies based on history, law, geography and geopolitics has undergone theoretical and methodological changes. Under the influence of modern interdisciplinary approaches such new categories as identity, loyalty, social memory and social space have been introduced.

The organizers of the workshop express their deep gratitude to Heinrich Boell Foundation for its support in preparing and conducting the workshop. We also greatly appreciate the Open Society Institute's support of this volume's publication.

The editors of this book are thankful to Maria Yasnova for editing English papers presented here.

CONTENTS

Part 1

BORDER STUDIES: PROBLEMS OF METHODOLOGY

Erhard Stoelting. The Social Meaning of Borders

James Scott. Inducing Co-operation: Can Euroregions Functions as Bridges between Complex Boundaries

Helga Patschaider. Rituals and Symbols which Create Barriers in Everyday Life (two case- studies: the Club "Motorcycle-Witches" and the Migrants in Transylvania)

Part 2

TOWN ON THE BORDER

Olga Brednikova, Viktor Voronkov. Border and Social Space Restructuring (the case of Narva-Ivangorod)

Dennis Zalamans. Mental and Physical Borderlines in the Baltic Sea Region

Irena Bratoew. Social Experience on the Borderline: Research of the "Euroregion Neisse-Nisa-Nysa"

Luise Laezer, Andrea Rudorff. The "Europe School" in Guben on the Oder-Neisse Border

Tanja von Fransecky, Tanja Kinzel. Xenophobic attitudes and Racist Violence of Young Germans on the German-Polish border

Part 3

BORDER IN A COUNTRYSIDE

Andrey Manakov. Border Factor in the Life of the Population of the Petchory area (Pskov Region, Russia)

Elena Nikiforova. Is a Border a Factor of Ethnic Community Formation? (case-study: the Setus, Petchory district, Pskov region, Russia)

Sergey Kuldin. The Border Influence on the Conscience and Economic Behaviour of the People along the Pskovsko-Chudskoe Lake

Part 4

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL IMPACTS OF BORDERS

Tomasz Zarycki. The Persistence of the Borders on the Territory of Poland

Ilkka Liikanen, Joni Virkkunen. Reflections on the Political Construction of Identity in Estonia

Friedrich Burschel. Living near the Border: Involvement of the Border-Population in the German Border Regime at the German-Polish Border

Mikhail Rozhansky. Border: a Line and a Space

Gassan Gusseinov. Our Motherland's Map or "the Border is under Lock and Key": Metamorphoses of an Ideologem

List of contributors

Irena Bratoew, University of Potsdam

Bergholzer Strasse 5, 14473 Potsdam, Germany

phone: 49 331 / 2706220

E-mail: bratoew@rz.uni-potsdam.de

P.O. Box 55, 191002 St.Petresburg, Russia

phone/fax: 7 812 / 3211066

E-mail: bred@indepsocres.spb.ru

Gneisenaustr. 2a, 10961 Berlin, Germany

phone: 49 30 / 6935670, fax: 49 30 / 6938318

E-mail: coyote5@aol.com, FFM@IPN-B.comlink.apc.org

Sanderstr.18, 12047 Berlin, Germany

phone: 49 30 / 61304792

E-mail: mathiesen.hp@snafu.de

Am Brahmkamp 15, D-29359, Bremen, Germany

phone/fax: 49 421 / 2449249

E-mail: gusseino@uni-bremen.de, gasangus@hotmail.com

Bornsdorferstr. 35a, 12053 Berlin, Germany

phone: 49 30 / 6861500

E-mail: mathiesen.hp@snafu.de

Naberezhnaya reki Velikoi, 6, 180000 Pskov, Russia

phone: 7 8112 / 163726, fax: 7 8112 / 223000

E-mail: kss@pskov.teia.ru

Frankfurter Allee 24, 10247 Berlin, Germany

phone: 49 30 / 2940914

E-mail: M0444ouw@student.hu-berlin.de

P.O.Box 111, 80101 Joensuu, Finland

phone: 358 13 / 2514546, fax: 358 13 / 2513454

E-mail: ilkka.liikanen@joensuu.fi

ul. Rokossovskogo, 22-179, 180024 Pskov, Russia

E-mail: mag@pskov.teia.org

P.O. Box 55, 191002 St.Petresburg, Russia

phone/fax: 7 812 / 3211066

E-mail: elenik@indepsocres.spb.ru

A- 1190 Wien, Budinskygasse 12/38, Austria

phone: 43 1 / 3694538

E-mail: lobauer@pgv.at

ul. Hmelnizckogo, 30 - 1, Irkutsk, Russia

phone: 7 3952 / 331183, fax: 7 3952 / 33 23 99

E-mail: profy@angara.ru

Rheinsberger Str. 38, 10435 Berlin, Germany

phone: 49 30 / 4406688

E-mail: andrea=rudorff@geschihte.hu-berlin.de

Falkenstr. 28-31, D-15537 Erkner by Berlin, Germany

phone: 49 33 / 62793172, fax: 49 33 / 62793111

E-mail: ScottJ@irs.los.shuttle.de, james_scott@hotmail.com

Postfach 900 327, D - 14439 Potsdam, Germany

phone: 49 33 / 79700903

E-mail: stol@rz.uni-potsdam.de

P.O.Box 111, 80101 Joensuu, Finland

phone: 358 13 / 2514546, fax: 358 13 / 2513454

E-mail: joni.vikkunen@joensuu.fi

P.O. Box 55, 191002 St.Petresburg, Russia

phone/fax: 7 812 / 3211066

E-mail: voronkov@socres.spb.org

S-10691 Stockholm, Sweden

phone: 46 8 / 6747845, fax: 46 8 / 164969

E-mail: dennis.zalamans@mail.humangeo.su.se

Krakowskie Przedmiescie 30, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland

phone/fax: 48 22 / 8262168, 48 22 / 8261654

E-mail: zarycki@plearn.edu.pl