The Young Researchers Conference "Identity Constructions and Meaning-Making in Border Regions" offers a unique platform for young researchers who are exploring the dynamic processes of identity and meaning construction in and through border regions. While conferences, colloquia and other scientific events are increasingly being held on a wide range of border-related topics, and border studies networks are finding their place in the scientific world, we found that there is a lack of a network of young researchers working in border studies. Our aim is to create such a network, which will be interdisciplinary and international, at the junior conference we are organising in 2025.

We would like to lay the groundwork of this network and debate on the establishment of such a network, its functions, its usefulness for young researchers like ourselves and its scientific orientation. We will do so through the following theme: The construction of identities and meaning-making in border regions.

Studies on borders have shown that borders are not only places that separate, but also places that unite, places of movement and places of flows (Shields, 2014 ; Rumford, 2006). In this young researchers conference, we will look at how these flows can influence the identity and sense of belonging of the people who cross them. Various studies have shed light on the role of the border as a place where one meets the other (Amilhat-Szary, 2015, van Houtum/van Naerssen, 2002). In addition, it becomes important to perceive the border as something unstable, fluctuating and volatile that can change its way of being at any time. These changes are made by actors respectively for actors according to their individual experiences, meaning attributions and overall narratives linked to the border. The border is considered to be in a process of continuous development rather than bearing an eternal and fixed determination (Newman, 2006). This follows concepts that increasingly theorise borders as fluid social and societal processes (Wille, 2024; Konrad, 2015). The ways the material and immaterial dimension of borders can evolve, apply also to identities that are, if not completely formed, at least shaped and influenced by borders (Laine, 2016). Despite their discursive and social constructedness, the physicality of national demarcations and their peripheral location within the nation state has to be taken into consideration. Geographically speaking, the centre-periphery dichotomy within nation-states plays a crucial role in shaping the identity and economic realities of these regions. While peripheral regions often experience neglect from central governments, particularly in terms of infrastructural investment, their location at intra-EU-borders receives special attention in the context of European integration (Knippschild & Schmotz 2018). This (symbolic) significance as “European integration laboratories” (Janczak, 2018) plays a crucial role in place-making strategies of the borderland, contributing to a narrative that emphasises the uniqueness of a particular region (Sohn, 2022; Zimmerbauer, 2011; Hospers, 2006). These constructions heavily rely on the choices actors make in what is portrayed in their narratives and how it is portrayed (Sohn & Scott, 2020).