Challenges of Pandemic-Related Border Closures for Everyday Lives of Poles and Czechs in the Divided Town of Cieszyn/Český Těšín: Integrated Functional Space or Reemergence of Animosities?
AbstractThe article asks whether the divided town Cieszyn-Český Těšín can be considered a joint “living space” in the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic. It evaluates the impact of the pandemic on various aspects of the daily lives of the inhabitants and institutions of both parts of this divided town. Three main dimensions of cross-border integration were studied: cross-border flows, cross-border structures/institutions, and the feeling of togetherness, which represents an ideational dimension of cross-border integration. The research was based on studying narratives covering border closures in the divided town, the analysis of cross-borderness of existing Facebook groups acting in both parts…
The influence of the Covid-19 pandemic on Czech-Polish cross-border cooperation: From debordering to re-bordering?
Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic brought many changes to social behaviours in Europe. One of its major consequences was the temporary closure of borders, which was introduced as a measure to prevent the uncontrolled pandemic spreading and involved internal Schengen borders. This has had a major impact in the way in which cross-border cooperation has been conducted in Europe, including the Czech-Polish borderland, as it dramatically restrained all flows across borders. In this paper, we evaluate the impact of the pandemic on five roles of cross-border cooperation: 1) as a multi-level governance form; 2) as a regional development tool; 3) as a para-diplomacy form; 4) as a post-conflict reconcil…
New re-bordering left them alone and neglected: Czech cross-border commuters in German-Czech borderland
The article focuses on the impact of the new re-bordering, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, on the functional, ideational and institutional dimension of cross-border integration, as perceived by the Czech cross-border commuters employed on the German side of the Euroregion Elbe Labe. The interviews with forty cross-commuters showed that they were left alone in these times of re-bordering and became victims of non-coordination between Czechia and Germany. Yet, cross-border commuting seems to have survived the first pandemic waves and the German labour market will continue to attract the Czech workforce despite that fact the pandemic has introduced a major uncertainty associated with the bord…
Can Cross-Border Healthcare Be Sustainable? An Example from the Czech-Austrian Borderland
Cross-border public services are considered to be one of the possible tools to eliminate the periphery position of border regions. The Czech part of the Gmü
Motivation and Preferences of Visitors in the Bohemian Paradise UNESCO Global Geopark
There are some localities in the Bohemian Paradise Geopark that suffer from temporal overtourism in the high season. On the other hand, more than half of the geopark is not so often visited by tourists, although very attractive geosites can be found there too. In the most visited localities, nature is damaged due to overloading of the tourist infrastructure, while elsewhere there is pressure driven by municipalities to increase the number of tourists. For this reason, we organized a large questionnaire survey in summer 2020, which aimed to reveal the motivation of visitors of the geopark and their preferences regarding the places visited. The questionnaire combined several research methods:…
Five Roles of Cross-border Cooperation Against Re-bordering
Borders on the old maps of Jizera Mountain
Abstract Old maps, mainly from the period between 1890 and 1940, have been collected in the framework of the project “Old Maps of the Jizera Mountains”. These maps provide us with a complex picture, mainly of tourism, in this currently Czech–Polish territory. The territory of the Jizera Mountains was inhabited mainly by a German-speaking population on both sides of the border until 1945. Yet it is interesting to examine how the border between the two states – in those times Czechoslovakia and Germany, now Czechia and Poland – was illustrated on these old maps. This article argues that the border was not perceived as a barrier as such until later on, mainly due to the ethnic change in the bo…
Cross-border Cultural Cooperation as the Principle Paradiplomacy Form: Evidence from the Czech-Polish Borderland
Microprojects are an important part of Interreg programmes. This article presents areas of cooperation and categories of actors who have been active in submitting and implementing these microprojects in the Czech-Polish borderland. It identifies 11 thematic areas of microprojects, which mainly support people-to-people projects in the field of culture. The most active microproject actors are local govern-ments, while the participation of non-public sector actors has generally rather stagnated since 2004. Cross-border cooperation, based on the use of microproject schemes, is a decisive part of the paradip-lomacy of small and medium-sized municipalities in the Czech-Polish borderland. The rol…
Czech–Polish Cross-Border (Non) Cooperation in the Field of the Labor Market: Why Does It Seem to Be Un-De-Bordered?
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Euroregions as political actors: managing border policies in the time of Covid-19 in Polish borderlands
The article examines the role of the Euroregions in the first Covid-19 pandemic wave in Europe. The beginning of the pandemic in the spring of 2020 led to the closures of state borders. This complicated the situation of Polish cross-border commuters working in Germany and the Czech Republic. The border closure also showed the strength of Euroregions, able to react and transmit the demands of borderlanders to the Polish government. To analyse this question, we adapt the deliberative system theory. The actions taken by Euroregions, as institutions of public space, were considered as deliberative consequences of non-deliberative actions of government.