Cross-Borders

Cross-Borders, Transnational,

borders have changed place. Whereas traditionally, and in conformity with both their juridical definition and “cartographical” representation as incorporated in national memory, they should be at the edge of the territory, marking the point where it ends, it seems that borders and the institutional practices corresponding to them have been transported into the middle of political space. (…) More and more, however, borders are creating problems in the heart of civic space where they generate conflicts, hopes, and frustrations for all sorts of people (…)
Etienne Balibar: “We, the People of Europe?”


Searches for the (political) subject beyond nationalism and ethnicism. What about the EU? Who is a EU citizen? Is there a EU citizen?

It became clear that the European unification is a challenging and troubling process. On the one hand, we can speak about the real impossibility of European unification as long as we operate in categories such as “us” and “them”, “old” and “new”, “big” and “small”. At the same time, the EU proved to erase borders and construct a quasi-state.

According to the contemporary French political philosopher Etienne Balibar, Europe needs a new democracy; he calls Europe’s current social democratic model a “conflictual democracy” – one which recognises individuals as the bearers of collective rights protection. For new, real, radical democracy of Europe we urgently need to rethink and recontextualize concepts such as: state, borders, nation, belonging, identity, sovereignty, citizenship, communism, solidarity.