Birte Wassenberg
Biographic Data
| ID | 6533092 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Birte Wassenberg |
| GIVEN NAMES | Birte |
| FAMILY NAME | Wassenberg |
| SIGNATURE | WASSENBERG B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Université de Strasbourg |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6014-2842 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 7 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 14 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Narrating Fortress Europe
Data availability statement: The full interview data supporting this study cannot be made available due to ethical restrictions and the need to protect interviewee confidentiality. Summaries of the country analyses are available via Zenodo: Sarmiento-Mirwaldt, K. (2025) “Country summaries for B-Shapes WP3 interview and focus group analysis [Data set]”, Zenodo, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16359768
Border Temporalities. Reflections on (Post) Modernity and Age
Narrating Europe from the Borders
This is the introduction to a special section “Narrating Europe from the Borders” in which we examine how European integration is discursively constructed in regional media located in internal EU borderlands. Drawing on research from the Horizon Europe project B-SHAPES, it compares four regions—the Franco-German Upper Rhine, the German-Polish-Czech triangle, the Danish-Swedish Øresund region, and the Slovak-Hungarian borderlands—through media ana…
Representations of Borderlands in Five EU Border Regions
Frontières en mouvement (Frontem)
During the process of European Integration, the European Union (EU) has progressively been established as a model of a "Europe without borders", in which free movement is guaranteed for its citizens. Cross-border cooperation in EU border regions has largely contributed to the implementation of this model. However, in the context of poly-crisis, where re-bordering is a frequent measure employed by EU Members States, this "Europe without borders" i…
Introduction
How are borders and time related? Are borders shifting state lines enshrined in history, the landscape, and cultural heritage? Are borders places where new understandings of time and space can be formed? Are temporalities of borders the material appearance, transformation, and disappearance of borders or the social practices which leave us with traces of times, tidelines, phantom, or ghost borders? Have we paid enough attention to the experiences…
Borders and Migration
Introduction—frontiers in Motion (Frontem)
This special section, edited by the author, presents five articles developed from the Frontiers in Motion (Frontem) doctoral seminar held in Strasbourg, France, in October 2021, on “Borders in Motion: Borders, Cross-Border Cooperation and European Integration”. The event was organized within the framework of the Jean Monnet Network, “Frontières en mouvement: quels modèles pour l’Union Européenne (Frontem)?” (“Frontiers in Motion: what models for …
Constructing a Collective Memory in the Franco-German-Swiss Upper Rhine Region
Cross-border regions in Europe have been often identified as models or testing places for European integration. The Franco-German-Swiss Upper Rhine Region has a long experience in cross-border cooperation since the 1960s, which should be a good starting point to construct a collective memory based on its image as an integrated borderland. Based on interviews with key witnesses of the cross-border region, this article shows, how these actors focus…
Mobilizing History
The Schengen Crisis and the End of the “Myth” of Europe Without Borders
The European Schengen crisis, spurred off by a wave of terrorist attacks in Europe and an unexpected increase in migration across the Mediterranean Sea in 2015 led to a re-questioning of the functions of borders in European integration. The ideal of a “Europe without borders” has been particularly affected. Indeed, the re-introduction of border controls in several Member States of the European Union (EU) symbolized a new obstacle to free circulat…
Section Introduction
This special section (thanks to the Jean Monnet Network, a European Union Erasmus+ Grant) explores the impact of migration crises on European borders, internal and external, from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds. The following articles adopt comparative, historical, legal, sociological, and discursive approaches in order to confront questions arising from the 2015 Schengen and Dublin political crises, which seem to have put an end to the ide…
“Return of Mental Borders”
This paper retraces the author’s personal experience of the COVID-19 lockdown from March to July 2020 at the Franco-German border from a threefold perspective: that of a cross-border worker living in Kehl, Germany, and working in Strasbourg, France; that of a Franco-German citizen with a family and children of both French and German nationality; and that of a researcher specialized in border studies. The paper deals with national re-bordering pol…
Secondary foreign policy
Studies on international relations increasingly focus on actors at the sub-state level. The terms para-diplomacy or proto-diplomacy are used to describe international activities of state institutions below the national level and outside the foreign services. In this special issue, we have collected seven case studies from Europe, North America and Asia, where the authors analyse recent developments of de- and re-bordering focusing on the role of …
Secondary foreign policy as a peace-building tool
Since the 1950s, cross-border cooperation has been operating as a tool for reconciliation in Europe. However, this secondary foreign policy was implemented differently in each border region and did not take place simultaneously. While it started as both a top-down and bottom-up movement shortly after the end of the Second World War in Western Europe, it was limited to communist party organized symbolism in Central and Eastern Europe. Here, cross-…
Between cooperation and competitive bargaining
In many ways, the Council of Europe paved the way for European Community (EC) action in local and regional affairs. It was the first European organisation to establish a conference of local and regional authorities in 1957, in which local actors and associations were represented and tried to influence the shaping of European regional policies. This article analyses the links between the Council of Europe and the EC in the development of regional …
Secondary foreign policy
Studies on international relations increasingly focus on actors at the sub-state level. The terms para-diplomacy or proto-diplomacy are used to describe international activities of state institutions below the national level and outside the foreign services. In this special issue, we have collected seven case studies from Europe, North America and Asia, where the authors analyse recent developments of de- and re-bordering focusing on the role of …
Secondary foreign policy as a peace-building tool
Since the 1950s, cross-border cooperation has been operating as a tool for reconciliation in Europe. However, this secondary foreign policy was implemented differently in each border region and did not take place simultaneously. While it started as both a top-down and bottom-up movement shortly after the end of the Second World War in Western Europe, it was limited to communist party organized symbolism in Central and Eastern Europe. Here, cross-…
Between cooperation and competitive bargaining
In many ways, the Council of Europe paved the way for European Community (EC) action in local and regional affairs. It was the first European organisation to establish a conference of local and regional authorities in 1957, in which local actors and associations were represented and tried to influence the shaping of European regional policies. This article analyses the links between the Council of Europe and the EC in the development of regional …
Secondary foreign policy
Studies on international relations increasingly focus on actors at the sub-state level. The terms para-diplomacy or proto-diplomacy are used to describe international activities of state institutions below the national level and outside the foreign services. In this special issue, we have collected seven case studies from Europe, North America and Asia, where the authors analyse recent developments of de- and re-bordering focusing on the role of …
Secondary foreign policy as a peace-building tool
Since the 1950s, cross-border cooperation has been operating as a tool for reconciliation in Europe. However, this secondary foreign policy was implemented differently in each border region and did not take place simultaneously. While it started as both a top-down and bottom-up movement shortly after the end of the Second World War in Western Europe, it was limited to communist party organized symbolism in Central and Eastern Europe. Here, cross-…
Between cooperation and competitive bargaining
In many ways, the Council of Europe paved the way for European Community (EC) action in local and regional affairs. It was the first European organisation to establish a conference of local and regional authorities in 1957, in which local actors and associations were represented and tried to influence the shaping of European regional policies. This article analyses the links between the Council of Europe and the EC in the development of regional …
The Schengen Crisis and the End of the “Myth” of Europe Without Borders
The European Schengen crisis, spurred off by a wave of terrorist attacks in Europe and an unexpected increase in migration across the Mediterranean Sea in 2015 led to a re-questioning of the functions of borders in European integration. The ideal of a “Europe without borders” has been particularly affected. Indeed, the re-introduction of border controls in several Member States of the European Union (EU) symbolized a new obstacle to free circulat…
Section Introduction
This special section (thanks to the Jean Monnet Network, a European Union Erasmus+ Grant) explores the impact of migration crises on European borders, internal and external, from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds. The following articles adopt comparative, historical, legal, sociological, and discursive approaches in order to confront questions arising from the 2015 Schengen and Dublin political crises, which seem to have put an end to the ide…
“Return of Mental Borders”
This paper retraces the author’s personal experience of the COVID-19 lockdown from March to July 2020 at the Franco-German border from a threefold perspective: that of a cross-border worker living in Kehl, Germany, and working in Strasbourg, France; that of a Franco-German citizen with a family and children of both French and German nationality; and that of a researcher specialized in border studies. The paper deals with national re-bordering pol…
Borders and Migration
Introduction—frontiers in Motion (Frontem)
This special section, edited by the author, presents five articles developed from the Frontiers in Motion (Frontem) doctoral seminar held in Strasbourg, France, in October 2021, on “Borders in Motion: Borders, Cross-Border Cooperation and European Integration”. The event was organized within the framework of the Jean Monnet Network, “Frontières en mouvement: quels modèles pour l’Union Européenne (Frontem)?” (“Frontiers in Motion: what models for …
Constructing a Collective Memory in the Franco-German-Swiss Upper Rhine Region
Cross-border regions in Europe have been often identified as models or testing places for European integration. The Franco-German-Swiss Upper Rhine Region has a long experience in cross-border cooperation since the 1960s, which should be a good starting point to construct a collective memory based on its image as an integrated borderland. Based on interviews with key witnesses of the cross-border region, this article shows, how these actors focus…
Mobilizing History
Frontières en mouvement (Frontem)
During the process of European Integration, the European Union (EU) has progressively been established as a model of a "Europe without borders", in which free movement is guaranteed for its citizens. Cross-border cooperation in EU border regions has largely contributed to the implementation of this model. However, in the context of poly-crisis, where re-bordering is a frequent measure employed by EU Members States, this "Europe without borders" i…
Introduction
How are borders and time related? Are borders shifting state lines enshrined in history, the landscape, and cultural heritage? Are borders places where new understandings of time and space can be formed? Are temporalities of borders the material appearance, transformation, and disappearance of borders or the social practices which leave us with traces of times, tidelines, phantom, or ghost borders? Have we paid enough attention to the experiences…
Narrating Fortress Europe
Data availability statement: The full interview data supporting this study cannot be made available due to ethical restrictions and the need to protect interviewee confidentiality. Summaries of the country analyses are available via Zenodo: Sarmiento-Mirwaldt, K. (2025) “Country summaries for B-Shapes WP3 interview and focus group analysis [Data set]”, Zenodo, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16359768
Border Temporalities. Reflections on (Post) Modernity and Age
Narrating Europe from the Borders
This is the introduction to a special section “Narrating Europe from the Borders” in which we examine how European integration is discursively constructed in regional media located in internal EU borderlands. Drawing on research from the Horizon Europe project B-SHAPES, it compares four regions—the Franco-German Upper Rhine, the German-Polish-Czech triangle, the Danish-Swedish Øresund region, and the Slovak-Hungarian borderlands—through media ana…
Representations of Borderlands in Five EU Border Regions
Cross-Border Cooperation and Integration (12 works) · Political science (11 works) · Economics (7 works) · International trade (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · European union (5 works) · History (5 works) · Migration, Refugees, and Integration (5 works) · Politics (5 works)