An Overview of European Geographical Research on Borders and Border Regions

Abstract

The number of geographical studies on borders and border regions has increased over the last few decades due to the process of globalization. The European Union (EU) integration process in particular has created demand for such studies of its internal borders and the changing views about them. This research aims to define trends within these geographical studies in terms of the EU integration process and discover commonalities of themes and methods within them. Three approaches a re identified (flow, cross-border cooperation, and people), geographical studies of borders and border regions are categorized within them, and the approaches are compared to one another in an attempt to better understand the trends in geographical research on European borders and border regions.