Welcome to Borderline City!

Euro­pean inte­gra­tion is a matter of great contro­versy, with border issues taking center stage in cities and villages across all of Europe. Although green border land­scapes along national terri­to­ries shape the image of Euro­pean border facil­i­ties, the cities them­selves, regard­less of their loca­tion, repre­sent the battle­grounds and drivers of a dual­istic trend within processes to both dissolve and draw borders. Growing isola­tionist tenden­cies – partially coupled with new border forti­fi­ca­tions – compete with an open, inter­con­nected and mobile society and extend beyond national borders. While knowl­edge, goods and tech­nology circu­late between cities and regions across borders as a matter of course, migra­tion flows of people fleeing their coun­tries give rise to a new appre­ci­a­tion for global depen­den­cies among Euro­peans. This has provoked national, regional and global reac­tions, resulting in the Brexit process and the Soli­darity Cities initia­tive or taking the form of urban border spaces such as gated commu­ni­ties. As these devel­op­ments occur in parallel – drawing and closing borders as well as networking and opening borders – cities across all of Europe will be confronted with great chal­lenges, which will ulti­mately impact the Europe of the future. How do people live, learn and work in border­less and isolated districts, cities and region? What types of tension are preva­lent in border towns and border-related situ­a­tions? How can these border land­scapes be devel­oped, planned and shaped?

Europe’s border spaces will be the focus of aspiring plan­ners, designers and researchers at Digital Summer School 2020, from the 8th to the 15th of May, which will take place within the frame­work of Germany’s National Urban Devel­op­ment Policy as a contri­bu­tion to the German EU Pres­i­dency with national and Euro­pean schools of plan­ning. This exchange between the plan­ning schools and the Federal Ministry for Building is a already long-standing tradi­tion in Germany and is supported as a key objec­tive of the German EU Presidency.