There is the vision of “Europe without borders”, and the reality of “Europe with many borders”.

In this edited volume perspectives on Europe are presented as seen from the borderlands. Landscapes, people and organizations at national borders constitute borderlands that differ from the national heartlands in respects that are both predictable and unpredictable. The collection of short essays captures some of the many ways seeing from the borderlands shapes how to think about Europe and how to plan and make policies that make sense for all.

The texts are written by researchers and practitioners who have been involved in Borders Shaping Perceptions of European Societies (B-SHAPES), a Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Action project that analysed and assessed how borders are still a key factor in how we understand societies. Eight European universities, one research institute, a national museum, a foundation, a political association, a consultancy, and an art collective came together between April 2023 and March 2026 to examine borders in cooperation with Europeans living in border regions.

The short essays comprise both professional insights and experiential reflections based on the project, with authors allowing themselves to be personal while remaining informed by their organisational roles. The volume contains texts that advocate for film and art informing research and policy, as well as texts that distil the key policy implications from different perspectives.

Work and working conditions are fundamental social determinants of health. Climate change poses an urgent and growing threat to workers' health, through both direct exposure to environmental hazards and indirect exacerbation of social and health inequalities. Occupational health, which focusses on the promotion of mental and physical health and well-being of workers, is a key but often overlooked area in this context. Research at the intersection of climate change and occupational health remains limited. At the same time, climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts are driving rapid transformations in the workplace, including shifts towards sustainability and circular economy models. These transitions are creating new occupational hazards, including in renewable energy and circular economy sectors. We argue for increased investment in occupational health research and surveillance to address the evolving impacts of both climate change and the green transition, to better promote and protect workers’ health and rights. © 2025 World Health Organization

The article analyses how a norm scientific perspective can advance our understanding of cross-border regions and guide future directions of research. Cross-border regions are territorial spaces comprising territory from two or more national states, located directly at the borders of those spaces. Since the 1950s it has become increasingly common that cross-border organizations, constituted by local municipalities and regional authorities and sometimes private entities, are established to coordinate governance processes around shared policy problems. These organizations fit into a Type II model of European multi-level governance as complex, fluid, and carried out in overlapping jurisdictions. A norm scientific perspective focuses on joint expectations as a primary predictor of behavior and thereby on social structures as well as social transformations. In accordance with institutional theory, norms are understood as intersubjective, widely shared, but often implicit, expectations and rules that guide human behavior. The article makes two arguments. First, it argues that a norm-scientific perspective has the potential to significantly advance the scientific community's understanding of various aspects related to how cross-border cooperation emergence and functioning. Second, it argues that cross-border regions constitute a promising venue to advance the knowledge of how norms can be studied and understood. Copyright © 2025 Svensson.

 The chapter analyses resilience-formation in borderlands and its relation to societal security. By investigating the case of regions located at the Ukrainian-Hungarian border, we argue for a nested borderland perspective which views this as an increasingly important cross-border region in the context of the NATO Eastern flank. The chapter starts with a theoretical discussion on resilience and how it can be conceptualised in a borderland setting, emphasising the distinction between bouncing-back and bouncing-forward capacities. After an analysis of the bordered realities of this part of NATO’s eastern flank, the chapter continues with a scenario-based analysis of how resilience might develop in the short- and long-term in the selected border region and the implication for NATO policy-makers at different levels of government. The chapter concludes with the argument that resilience-building needs attention to the sub-national level in general, and borderlands in particular.

The article problematizes tourism destination development in the European borderlands of Denmark-Germany, Sweden-Denmark and Sweden-Finland, where border crossing has been relatively free for decades, except for the time of Covid-19 pandemic border restrictions in 2020-2021. The research contributes to border studies and tourism studies by developing a framework for analyzing tourism destinations through the prism of the multilayered border, with a focus on destination images, attractions, and hosts. The reseach complements previous studies on tourism development and cross-border partnership in the European Union territory by investigating multiple tourism destinations in the border regions and by contemplating to what extent borders form a resource for destination promotion in the aftermath of the pandemic. The examination of regional tourism development through the prism of borders informs us about the compatibility of the idea of a "borderless" Europe with border region "realities." © 2024 The Author(s).

The paper analyzes Nordic participation in the cross-border cooperation project "b-solutions initiative",  comparing it with the pre-existing obstacle-focused method for solving obstacles standing in the way of cross-border regional integration and mobility. The paper emphazes the novelty of the Nordic approach of working systematically with issues as "obstacles", something which then spread to European actors. The project b-solutions took the systematisation further and the method has returned to the Nordic countries with a twist and additional resources. However, Nordic actors still remain underrepresented in the overall pool. 

Politik och förvaltning är två sidor av demokratin. Den politiska makten används för att styra samhällsutvecklingen utifrån ett ideologiskt synsätt, medan den offentliga förvaltningens uppgift är att tjäna andra, ytterst medborgarna. I detta ligger en unik utmaning: å ena sidan ska folket genom sina valda representanter styra och kontrollera förvaltningen, å andra sidan ska myndigheter och tjänstemän vara självständiga nog att hävda saklighet, opartiskhet och ett etiskt förhållningssätt. 

Denna bok ger en bild av dessa utmaningar. Den ger också en överblick som gör det lättare att navigera bland alla aktörer. Att hitta rätt bland internationella, statliga, regionala och lokala nivåer är nämligen inte självklart. Detta är en karta som dessutom blivit alltmer splittrad i takt med decentralisering, specialisering och privatisering. 

I den tredje upplagan av VÅR OFFENTLIGA FÖRVALTNING har lagar och förordningar inom välfärdssektorn uppdaterats, liksom andra viktiga förändringar inom offentlig förvaltning. Även den ökade digitaliseringen och betydelsen av medlemskapet i Nato behandlas. Boken vänder sig till högskolestuderande vid utbildningar i offentlig förvaltning, men också till den som redan arbetar inom sådana verksamheter. Det inkluderar så skilda yrken som kommunikatör, utredare, socionom, arbetsvetare, lärare, arbetsförmedlare, sjukvårdspersonal, polis och miljöinspektör. Boken vänder sig också till förtroendevalda politiker och andra som är intresserade av området. 

Anna Melke är journalist, fil. dr i offentlig förvaltning och verksam som forskare vid Göteborgsregionen, FoU i Väst. Hon har även medverkat i tidigare upplagor, som initialt författades av Hans Bengtsson. I denna upplaga medverkar två nya författare: Petra Svensson och Sara Svensson, docenter i statsvetenskap och verksamma som lektorer vid Högskolan i Halmstad.