Comparing Cross-Bordering City-Regional Strategies Beyond Nation-States in Oresund and the Basque Country
15th Border Regions in Transition (BRIT) Conference Cities, States and Borders: From the Local to the Global Hamburg (Germany) – Sonderborg (Denmark) 17-20 May 2016
2 Pages Posted: 17 May 2016
Date Written: May 17, 2016
Abstract
Cross-bordering implies taking into account a diverse range of factors between two regional hubs in the interest of comparing case studies. This paper contrasts two city-regional configurations: on the one hand, the Oresund city-region (or newly called Greater Copenhagen) between Copenhagen and Malmö; and on the other hand, the Basque Country between French Pays Basque, Navarra Statutory Autonomy and the Basque Autonomy. Both cases consist of two nation-states. In the case of Oresund, the city-region is configured between Sweden and Denmark. In the case of the Basque Country, the city-region is situated between Spain and France. Moreover, the two cases depict very diverse patterns of cross-bordering collaboration: in the Oresund city-region, the cooperation has been primarily fueled by the two main cities; in the Basque city-region, although there are remarkable territorial synergies, there is not clear leadership between the three aforementioned territorial entities.
Keywords: Oresund, Basque Country, Greater Copenhagen, French Pays Basque, Cross-Bordering, Nation-States, Regions, Cities, Comparative
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