This week, Dr. Peter Ulrich from BTU Cottbus presented his dissertation entitled ‘Participatory Governance in the Europe of Cross-Border Regions: Cooperation – Boundaries – Civil Society’ at our brown bag lecture series. Dr. Peter Ulrich has been staying in Kaiserslautern during a shared desk phase as part of the project Linking Borderlands for the last two weeks. During his stay, we have advanced our work on identifying key stakeholders and networks in the SaarLorLux+ and Brandenburg/Lebus border regions. Additionally, Peter got to know the region and connected with other project partners from Kaiserslautern and Saarbrücken.
Peter Ulrich’s presentation focused on border regions as well: In his work, he investigates the role of geopolitical and sociocultural boundaries for cross-border governance and civil society participation. This is closely connected to the question of democratic quality in European cross-border regions as citizen engagement in Euroregional institutions and politics is decisive for their legitimacy. Using the example of the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation, his study analyses and compares four cross-border Euroregional case studies: Tyrol–South Tyrol–Trentino, Galicia–North Portugal, SaarMoselle and the planned German–Polish TransOderana EGTC.
In the further course of the project, Stefanie Thurm will also stay at BTU Cottbus for two weeks to advance the cooperation between the project partners.
Stefanie Thurm