Jean Monnet Network

Call for Proposals: XV International Congress on Regional Integration, Borders and Globalization in the American Continent

Monday, June 15, 2015 (All day)

Proposals to participate in the XV International Congress on Regional Integration, Borders and Globalization in the American Continent are currently being accepted.

The congress will be held jointly with the IV International Congress of Border Cities On 28, 29 and 30 October 2015 At the Institute of Social Sciences and Management Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez (UACJ) In Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México

DESCRIPTION: The International Congress on Regional Integration, Borders and Globalization in the American Continent has been since 1996 a space that encourages critical reflection in order to contribute to a greater understanding of our reality. It has also fostered action research and the construction of a critical stands vis-à-vis the most pressing problems of the American continent. To continue this reflection, its 15th Congress is jointly held with the 4th International Conference on Border Cities, held since 2009 at the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez (UACJ). This joint conference seeks to integrate various discussions and debates which have taken place for nearly twenty years through our project and research program on Regional Integration, Borders and Globalization in the Americas. This conference’s purpose is primarily to establish new mechanisms for interdisciplinary teamwork and comparative work. On this occasion, we seek to emphasize a critical view of the concept of borders and their economic, political, social, psychological, cultural, legal and territorial manifestations. Further, we seek to question the very existence of borders in a globalized world. This conference will include a visit to the border town of El Paso, Texas. The call for proposals includes papers, roundtable discussions, full panels, book presentations, video conferences, documentaries and academic exchanges with open discussions on the following

THEMES

1. THE PROCESS OF REGIONAL INTEGRATION IN FRONT OF THE GLOBAL CRISIS
   • Regional integration, free trade and globalization
   • Productive and service sectors in globalization
   • Neoliberalism, globalization and limits of national sovereignty
   • Political and geopolitical thinking of globalization and integration
2. FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS AND GEOSTRATEGY
   • Regionalization and extraction of strategic natural resources
   • Regional integration, megaprojects and environmental impacts
   • The emergence of new integration processes in the region 
3. MILITARIZATION AND REGIONAL SECURITY
   • Militarization, armaments and repression
   • Regional security and multidimensional security
   • “War on Terror and the “War on Drugs”
   • Insecurity and organized crime
4.  MIGRATION, FORCED DISPLACEMENT AND REFUGEES
   •  New migration flows
   • Forced migration and human trafficking
   • Displacement of peoples and exile
   • Refugee Policies
5. NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND EXPERIENCES OF ORGANIZATION
   • Ethnicities in the face of globalization
   • Emerging social networks
   • Social conflict and resistance
6. THE BORDERS IN THE FACE OF INTEGRATION
   •  Borders as global and transnational spaces
   • Regional integration, cooperation and border development
   •  Economic transactions and cross-border labor markets
   • The construction of cross-border social networks
7. SECURITY AND BORDER MILITARIZATION
   • Borders and bio-politics
   • Border Crossing Controls
   • Material expressions of border security (walls, canals, fences, prisons and detention centers, etc.)
   • Dehumanization of borders and democratic responses to terrorism and insecurity
8. CROSS-BORDER CULTURE
   • Culture, history and border narratives
   • New identities and cross-border subjects
   • Border, inter-ethnic territories and ethno-development
   • Universal citizenship, cosmopolitanism and cross-border mobility
   • Cultural heritage and border landscape
9. BORDER CITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS
   • Political processes and public policy
   • Violence and Public Safety
   • Environment, public health and welfare
   • Social vulnerability on the borders
10. CONSTRUCTING AN AGENDA OF CRITICAL STUDIES OF THE BORDER
    • Construction, de-construction and reconstruction of the concept of borders
    • Internal and external Borders (borders within borders)
    • Boundaries within the nation-state

OBJECTIVES

• Examine the impact of the global economic crises on the political and social landscape in the Western Hemisphere
• Develop networks to analyze ways of working jointly on globalization and borders
• Provide methodological tools to articulate resistance processes and reflection on regional integration alternatives
• Strengthen the link social movements—academia
• Encourage and promote comparative approaches between countries in the region to discuss common issues
• Promote the study and critical reflection of the concepts of borders and boundaries as well as knowledge of the social reality of the border cities

PARTICIPANTS Researchers, teachers, students, activists and members of civil society organizations

PRACTICAL INFORMATION Transportation, accommodations and food costs will be paid by the participants. Because the campus of the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez is located in an area where food services (restaurants) are not close by, the Local Organizing Committee agreed to retain the services of a restaurant which will provide meals at a cost of $ 30.00 (thirty US dollars) or $ 400.00 (four hundred pesos) for the three days. A participant wishing to utilize this service must pay all $400 pesos upon registration. At the end of the congress, there will be a visit to the border town of El Paso, Texas. The costs shall also be paid for by the participants. Please send a note next to the abstract of the paper if you are interested in this activity. All participants are responsible for having a valid visa issued by the United States to cross the border.

DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACTS Please, turn in your proposals by June 15, 2015, with an extension of one page maximum, double spacing, Times New Roman 12 font. The deadline to receive submissions for those interested in publishing their paper in a Memory CD version of the conference is September 30, 2015. The length of the paper is 20-25 pages, double spacing, Times New Roman 12 front, in Word format. The deadline for submission of papers to the Organizing Committee for its review and possible publication in a book is December 5, 2015. Please send abstracts and papers to the following three addresses:

• Dr. Juan Manuel Sandoval Palacios: [email protected]
• Dr. Hector Padilla Antonio Delgado: [email protected]
• Dr. Consuelo Pequeño. [email protected]

Publication of papers in the book: The papers will be submitted to a review committee and those that are selected will be published. The Committee will provide the editorial guidelines for all papers to be published. Depending on the amount of selected materials and resources available will be publishing one or more thematic books.

Overview

This Network of leading scholars expanded the Borders in Globalization SSHRC Partnership to include Birte Wassenberg at the University of Strasbourg in France, Edward Boyle at Kyushu University (in consultation with Ken Endo and Naomi Chi at Hokkaido University) in Japan, and Can Mutlu at Acadia University (previously with Bilkent University in Turkey). At UVic, Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly (Public Admin) works closely with EU Migration expert Oliver Schmidtke (Political Science / History).

Our Network hypothesized that answers to the migration crisis are shaping Europe’s borders, migration and related security policies in exemplary manners and should be studied in comparative perspective and context. Activities, like the four JM Network workshops, are aimed at engaging graduate students, young researchers and professors at each partner institution along with the policy makers in each community. In fact, this EU Network piggybacks directly onto the Borders in Globalization research program, thus leveraging both grants to maximize impact, outreach, and the advancement of knowledge and research comparing EU border and migration policies.

Workshops & Conferences

Database Project

In collaboration with Borders in Globalization, we launched the comparative database project. As a database of border, migration, and related security policies, the project allows for a systematic comparison of the EU with the rest of the world. In 2020, we were successful in obtaining additional funding from the European Union to explore this project further. You can find more information about the database itself here and more information about the Jean Monnet Human-to-Military Security Database Network here.

Teaching & Courses

EUS 490 – European Borders without Walls
The recent and ongoing migration situation in and around Europe is forcing European policy makers to address past and future challenges to integration. The decisions they are making will have a long-standing impact on the EU. EUS 490 examines how the responses to the crisis are shaping Europe’s borders, migration, and related security policies in exemplary ways from a comparative perspective and context.

The material for this course develops from an EU funded research programme led by UVic with a network of partners in France, Turkey, Japan and Canada. This network conducts innovative and forward-looking research comparing the EU’s evolving border, migration and security policies to policies in Canada, France, Japan and Turkey. The activities in the course are aimed at engaging the greater public, undergraduate and graduate students, young researchers and professors, along with the policy makers in each community.

Each unit uses a video presentation by the professor and includes diverse learning activities including video-clips, short readings, quizzes, and discussion forums. Although it is highly recommended you keep pace with the course, you can follow the course material at your own pace. Participating in a timely manner will provide access to a wide range of debates on the history, culture, economics, sustainability, security and governance of borders.

European Borders without Walls was offered both as a for-credit course through the University of Victoria or for free through Continuing Studies as a non-credit option. This course was open on a non-credit basis to professionals in the public and private sector, academics, border and migration scholars, and community members with a strong interest in issues of borders and migration.

Euregio Rhine-Waal, Kleve, Germany

Monday, May 23, 2016 (All day)

On Monday, May 23, 2016 the Nijmegen Centre for Border Research of the Radboud University along with the Euregion Rhine-Waal and Seinpost Consultancy BV organized a policy-forum ‘Borders as a Creative Resource’. This forum took place in the framework of the international research-project Borders in Globalization (BIG).  The Radboud University, the Euregion Rhine-Waal and Seinpost Consultancy BV form the consortium at the Dutch-German border.

The ultimate aim of this network is the comparison of border regions in order to achieve a better understanding of the effects of borders, so as to be able to formulate policy with regard to borders. In an era where borders are again gaining importance, this project tries to link the different dimensions of borders.

This policy forum wanted to set up a dialogue especially but not exclusively among European academic partners and non-academic organizations. This dialogue on the border as a resource was framed by the ‘BIG’-approach, where the six central themes or perspective will be guiding. These are in random order culture, history, security, flows, sustainability and governance. The invited participants reflected ob these themes. The forum took the form of a few presentations by keynote speakers and most importantly (plenary and/or group) discussions. This all with the aim to stimulate new research and policy in this important arena.

Program can be found here.

Dr. Martin van der Velde and Dr. Victor Konrad gave an interview in a German regional newspaper on the forum. See here.

Borders in Globalization Partnership Grant (2013-2020)

About the program:

The Borders in Globalization program began in 2013 thanks to a seven-year Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Grant. In addition to funding from SSHRC, our academic partners contributed matching funding and our non-academic partners provided cash and in-kind support. This project was directed by Dr. Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly at the University of Victoria (Victoria, Canada) and was co-directed by Dr. Victor Konrad from Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada). The academic partnership consisted of ten university partners: Carleton, école Nationale d’Administration Publique, Lethbridge, Ottawa, Regina, RMCC, Sherbrooke, Trent, Université du Québec à Montréal, and Wilfrid Laurier; and eleven from around the world: Autonomous University of Ciudad Juárez (Mexico), Ben-Gurion University (Israel), Radboud University (The Netherlands), Queen’s University Belfast, University of Eastern Finland, Université de Grenoble (France), University of Luxembourg, University of Southern Denmark, The University at Buffalo (SUNY), and Western Washington University.

The Borders in Globalization (BIG) Research Partnership sought to understand the changing nature of borders through six thematic areas (culture, flows, governance, history, sustainability, security). Our outstanding colleagues, located across Canada and around the world, documented how state-centered and territorially-fixated research limits our understanding of borders. We worked with policy makers through summer institutes, conferences, policy forums, and participated in their own activities to present our comparative and policy relevant research. Over its lifespan, BIG trained and mentored about 100 senior undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral fellows; organized 11 summer institutes and three major international conferences; and produced over 100 scholarly publications and policy briefs, dozens of videos, and an ongoing open online course. These activities resulted in a strong partnership and relationships between our academic and non-academic teams who have now been working together constructively for several years. For example, a direct result of BIG is an ongoing partnership between the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the University of Victoria. This partnership features the inclusion of CBSA policy questions into coursework, the development of policy-relevant research questions for student research, and a UVic-CBSA co-hosted summer school bringing together policy-makers, public/private sector actors, academics, and students.  With the funding from SSHRC, we were able to leverage over $1.8 million other funds from partners around the world, including several grants from the European Commission’s Jean Monnet Programme. Partnerships and collaborations established across our network during BIG continue into the future, including an innovative online open-source journal, The BIG_Review. BIG_Review provides a forum for academic and creative explorations of borders in the 21st century. BIG_Review publishes scholarship (academic articles, essays, research notes, book reviews, and film reviews) as well as artwork (photography, painting, poetry, short stories, and more). The journal is committed to academic peer review, public access, policy relevance, and cultural significance.

Research Agenda:

The original Borders in Globalization (BIG) partnership was an innovative, integrative, and sustainable network of academic partners from Canada, the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, which was engaged with non-academic organizations that are involved in the management of borders and borderlands in Canada and worldwide. Border studies are global in reach, and so we ground our core partnership in Canada and associate with key research centers worldwide.  This provided support for a global policy-research agenda that serves Canadian interests.

The goal was to build excellence in the knowledge and understanding of borders.  To this end, the partners worked together to create new policy and foster knowledge transfer in order to address such globalization forces as security, trade and migration flows, and also to understand the forces of technology, self-determination and regionalization that are affecting borders and borderlands in regions around the world. Our program of research placed Canadian scholars at the core of an international partnership, with the objectives of developing policy and knowledge from an international perspective and thus developing professional and academic training. A central tool to this end was round-tables between policy makers and academics that inform all our work from its inception; Round-tables lead to research, policy forums, summer schools, conferences, policy reports, briefs and books, and inform both theory and practice related to orders. 

Our research was interdisciplinary across all social sciences, and was organized around a few critical themes that frame key discussions: self-determination, governance complexity, local culture, political clout, market and migration flows, and borders in motion. Policy makers, policy activists and social scientists needed more than the existing partial – narrowly defined or territorially limited – explanations of border issues that are available. They needed to go beyond, for example, the study of the internal and external borders of the European Union or the study of the maritime borders of Japan. This research program moved the field forward by developing a global scholarship to theoretical conceptual thinking on borders, while privileging the practical issues that policy-makers face daily.

You can view all events and outputs from this project on the events and outputs page. You can find more information on each research themes including research questions and background information at the links below. The regional studies covered each of the six themes and the goal of each regional study was to be comparable across regions and remain policy relevant within each region.

Project Reports

Research Affiliates

The Borders in Globalization research partnership included over 100 scholars from around the world working with us on our research agenda. We would like to thank them all for their contributions to the Borders in Globalization grant and to helping further the field of border studies.

Akihiro Iwashita (Hokkaido University, Japan); Amael Cattaruzza (Centre de recherches des Ecoles de Coëtquidan, France); Barry Prentice (University of Manitoba); Ben Muller (King’s College, University of Western Ontario); Bernard Reitel (Institut des Frontières et des Discontinuités (IFD), Université d’Artois, France); Beverly Diamond (Memorial University); Bidisha Biswas (Western Washington University, USA); Brennan Gillis (Mitacs, Atlantic); Bruno Dupeyron (University of Regina); Cathal McCall (Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland); Cedric Parizot (Aix-Marseille University, France); Charles-Philippe David (L’Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)); Christopher Kukucha (University of Lethbridge); Colin Howell (Saint Mary’s University); Dan Lynch (Dalhousie University); Danny Blair (University of Winnipeg); David Atkinson (Purdue University, USA); David Black (Dalhousie University); David Davidson (Western Washington University, USA); David Good (University of Victoria); David Grondin (University of Ottawa); David Long (Carleton University); David Miller (University of Regina); Donna Townley (University of Lethbridge); Doug Ramsey (Brandon University); Edward Boyle (Kyushu University, Japan); Emily Gilbert (University of Toronto); Evelyn Mayer (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany);  Heather Exner-Pirot (University of Saskatchewan); Francois Moullé (Institut des Frontières et des Discontinuités (IFD), Université d’Artois, France); Frédéric Giraut (Université de Genève, Switzerland); Frédéric Lasserre (Université Laval); Greg Anderson (University of Alberta); Grégory Hamez (Université de Lorraine, France); Guy Saez (Sciences Po Grenoble, France); Hastings Donnan (Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland); Heidi Weigand (Saint Mary’s University); Himanshu Grover (State University New York, Buffalo, USA); James Scott (University of Eastern Finland, Finland); JC Boucher (Dalhousie University); Jeff Corntassel (University of Victoria); Jennifer Andrews (University of New Brunswick); Jessica Shadian (University of Lapland, Finland); Jill Hobbs (University of Saskatchewan); Jill Kerr (University of Saskatchewan); Jiyoung Park (SUNY Buffalo); Joël Plouffe (L’Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)); John Lehr (University of Winnipeg); John Reid (Saint Mary’s University); John Schoales (Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture, and Sport); Joseph Nyemah (Nova Scotia Economic, Rural, Tourism Development); Cedric Juillet (Trent University); Kathryn Friedman (SUNY Buffalo); Katy Hayward (Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland); Kevin Quigley (Dalhousie University); Laetitia Rouviere (Carleton University); Lassi Heininen (University of Lapland, Finland); Laura MacDonald (Carleton University); Lee Rodney (University of Windsor); Marie-Christine Fourny (Université Joseph Fourier (Grenoble 1), France); Martin Geiger (Carleton University); Martin Pratt (Bordermap Consulting); Matthew Schnurr (Dalhousie University); Melissa Kelly (Carleton University -former BIG Post-Doc); Michael Darroch (University of Windsor); Michael Ircha (Carleton University); Oliver Schmidtke (University of Victoria); Paul Storer (Western Washington University); Peter Nyers (McMaster University); Peter Stoett (Concordia University); Richard Mueller (University of Lethbridge); Rob Huebert (University of Calgary); Rob McInnes (Port of Halifax); Robert Lecker (McGill University); Robert Young (University of Western Ontario); Rod Dobell (University of Victoria); Ron Williamson (ASI); Ross Burkhart (Boise State University); Ruben Zaiotti (Dalhousie University); Sarah Mekdjian (Universite Pierre-Mendes France, France); Sarah Zell (University of British Columbia); Stephane Paquin (ENAP); Steven Schwinghammer (Pier 21 Immigration Museum); Susan Gray (Arizona State); Suzanne Lalonde (Université de Montréal); Thomas Cantens (World Customs Organization); Tim Porter (Council of Atlantic Premiers); Todd Hately (Royal Military College); Whitney Lackenbauer (University of Waterloo); William Anderson (University of Windsor); William Kerr (University of Saskatchewan); William Straw (McGill University); William Walters (Carleton University); Yale Belanger (University of Lethbridge); Yukari Takai (York University).

Funders & Academic Partners