The session invites interdisciplinary contributions focused on the current and future perspectives of the Alpine borderscapes as a paradigmatic place where to analyse social, economic and cultural processes. The Alpine territory is traditionally considered a (natural) border that has become a palimpsest of different “crises”: an ecological crisis, concerning the impacts of climate change; a social crisis, as a transit space in the transnational migratory flows from Southern to Northern Europe; a sanitary crisis, with the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic. The coronavirus, in particular, has acted globally as a “multiplier” of borders at different spatial levels, highlighting or exacerbating existing fragilities and imbalances. Following the different measures that European member states have adopted since 2020, new geographies of (im)mobility have emerged across the border territories, especially during the early stages of the sanitary emergency. These measures have impacted the everyday life of already vulnerable communities and territories, particularly those areas whose economy is heavily dependent on cross-border mobility. 
At the same time, the Alpine space is also a territory of encounter and cooperation. Formal and informal practices and initiatives cross-bordering the territory take place at multiple scales and on different topics, fostering cross-border interactions and the interdependencies of border communities. These interactions have never ceased, even in the most difficult times of the sanitary crisis, putting under the spotlight a cross-border space that exists alongside any process of bordering and fragmentation.
At the dawn of the new programming period of European funds (2021-2027) and the implementation of recovery funds, cross-border regions have the opportunity to build upon their past and current fragilities and strengths to envision new modes of cross-border interactions and possibly a new generation of territorial strategies to overcome their marginality, going beyond their borders and imagining a common future for their territories.
In this light, the session aims to explore the complex entanglement between novel forms of re-bordering and de-bordering pushed by the ecological, social and sanitary situation and consider what new opportunities for (in)formal transboundary collaborations between local communities and stakeholders have emerged or might emerge in the future. The session also welcomes contributions dealing with the imaginaries of Alpine space, produced and reproduced through narratives and arts that cross national boundaries. We welcome paper proposals dealing with theoretical aspects as well as empirical or literature-review case studies analysis, visual explorations, or relevant policy-oriented analysis on the Alpine borderscapes and bilateral and cross-border cooperation frameworks. Bibliography

Brambilla C., Laine J. Scott J. W., Bocchi G. (eds) (2015). Borderscaping: Imaginations and Practices of Border Making, Routledge
Coletti, R., & Oddone, N. (2021). Covid-19 in the European Union and MERCOSUR: UNU-CRIS Border Management at Different Scales. UNU-CRIS WORKING PAPER SERIES, 1-23.
Kissing, T. (ed) (2021). Solid, Fluid, Biotic. Changing Alpine Landscapes. Zürich: Lars Müller
Pasqual, E., Ferrari, M., & Bagnato, A. (2019). A Moving Border: Alpine Cartographies of Climate Change. New York: Columbia University Press.
Radil, S. M., Castan Pinos, J., Ptak, T. (2020). Borders resurgent: towards a post-COVID-19 global border regime? Space and Polity, https://doi.org/10.1080/13562576.2020.1773254

Contacts
alice.buoli@polimi.it; raffaella.coletti@cnr.it; ingrid.kofler2@unibz.it

Alice Buoli (1); Raffaella Coletti (2); Ingrid Kofler (3)
(1) Politecnico di Milano, Department of Architecture and Urban Studies (DAStU), Milano, Italy, (2) Institute for the Study of Regionalism, Federalism and Self-Government (ISSiRFA) of the National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Rome, Italy, (3) Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Faculty of Design and Art, Bolzano, Italy

 
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