Marquées par une histoire conflictuelle, les frontières de la Pologne ont connu depuis 1990 d’importants changements relatifs à leurs fonctions. Cette thèse se propose d’analyser les conséquences géopolitiques de ces changements sur les espaces frontaliers ainsi que sur le territoire polonais, au cours de l’intégration de la Pologne à l’Union européenne (UE), du début du processus d’adhésion à l’UE en 1998, à l’entrée complète dans l’espace Schengen en 2008. Ce travail revient dans un premier temps sur la dimension historique des frontières de la Pologne, caractérisées dans leur ensemble parleur grande instabilité. Ce retour en arrière nous permet de nous interroger, a posteriori, sur la spécificité des faits historiques qui ont marqué de façon durable l’espace polonais et ses frontières. Il propose ensuite une analyse comparative qui s’articule autour de la distinction typologique concernant le statut actuel des frontières polonaises : d’un côté les dyades internes de l’UE, frontières « en déconstruction » ; de l’autre les frontières « en reconstruction » sur les nouveaux confins de l’UE. Il tente enfin de faire la synthèse de ce « jeu des frontières » en analysant ses conséquences sur le territoire polonais. / Marked by a history of conflicts, the borders of Poland have experienced significant changes in their functions since 1990. This thesis aims to analyze the geopolitical consequences of these changes on the border area and the Polish territory, throughout the integration of Poland into the European Union (EU), from the beginning of the accession process in 1998, to its full membership in the Schengen area in 2008. At first, this work deals with the historic dimension of the borders of Poland, characterized by their high instability. This particularity allows us to retrospectively examine, the specificity of thehistorical facts that have durably affected the Polish space and its borders. Then this thesis provides a comparative and multiscalar analysis which revolves around the typological distinction regarding the status of Polish borders: the internal,« deconstructing » EU borders on one side, the new external « reconstructing » EU borders on the other. Finally, this work tries to analyze the effects of this « borders’ game » on the polish territory.

Submitted by Eunice Novais (enovais@uepg.br) on 2018-05-10T00:27:49Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) Marcio Barbosa Norberto.pdf: 1519875 bytes, checksum: 6949fa5e880030ed8fa5b61005220562 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-10T00:27:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) Marcio Barbosa Norberto.pdf: 1519875 bytes, checksum: 6949fa5e880030ed8fa5b61005220562 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-28 / A presente pesquisa busca analisar a cobertura jornalística produzida em regiões de fronteira internacional, com recorte para a Tríplice Fronteira formada por Argentina, Brasil e Paraguai, compreendendo, respectivamente, os veículos noticiosos La voz de Cataratas (Puerto Iguazú), Gazeta Diário de Foz do Iguaçu (Foz do Iguaçu) e Vanguardia (Ciudad del Este). O objetivo é verificar como estes veículos reportam ao público o dia a dia deste espaço identificado por diferentes representações culturais e por situações cotidianas singulares, não sendo observadas em outras regiões. Com base na perspectiva metodológica da análise de conteúdo, por meio de uma abordagem quantitativa e qualitativa, busca-se identificar aspectos da prática jornalística em sua dimensão simbólica, tais como as formas de representação da realidade fronteiriça, a tematização predominante, as fontes utilizadas, entre outras características próprias do fazer jornalístico. / The present research seeks to analyze the journalistic coverage produced in regions of international frontier, with cutting to the Triple Border formed by Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, understanding respectively the news vehicle La voz de Cataratas (Puerto Iguazú), Gazeta Diário de Foz do Iguaçu (Foz do Iguaçu) e Vanguardia (Ciudad del Este). The objective is to verify how these vehicle report to the public the day to day of this space identified by different cultural representations and by very singular everyday situations, not being observed in other regions. Based on the methodological perspective of the content analysis, through a quantitative and qualitative approach, it is sought to identify aspects of the journalistic practice in its symbolic dimension, such as the forms of representation of the frontier reality, the predominant theme, the sources used, among other characteristics of journalistic making.

Abstract A predominant academic question is how and why the development paths of municipalities and regions take certain forms. In recent decades, geographers and economists in particular have investigated the dynamics of how local institutional conditions and their local mobilisation can affect development outcomes and how development is determined by “structural” forces such as state- and EU-based regulations and globalisation of the economy. Thus, the notion that historical sensitiveness and context-dependency are essential factors in local and regional development and growth has gained credence. Then again, municipalities and regions are not “islands” of development but integral parts of complex socio-spatial relations and processes. From this viewpoint, border municipalities and regions are eminently interesting research contexts as they are sites where different scalar political interests, institutional structures, and development discourses are continuously manifested, materialised and contested in the daily practices of local and regional actors. Nevertheless, this thesis argues that the existing mainstream studies investigating the development paths and prospects of border regions and municipalities are, firstly, overly EU-centric and, secondly, have an overly limited perspective on the institutional environment and legacy in which local and regional actors operate. The main attention in this regard has often been on the institutional differences between states and nationalities. In order to understand the development prospects of border areas and the preconditions of transnational regionalisation, municipal planning of border areas needs to be approached not only from the perspective of EU-driven cross-border co-operation and building of “transnational” scale, but more comprehensively. Accordingly, the present research on the Finnish-Swedish border area, which is an internal border area of the EU, takes a more historically and contextually sensitive institutional approach in this regard. Investigating the structural and discursive dynamics related to the institutionalisation of cross-border co-operation as a development strategy in the context of municipal planning enables not only identification of the conflicts and intersections between state-, EU- and local/regional-level development interests and institutional structures, but also provides room for recognising the diversity of the existing interests, strategies and motivations of local and regional actors and different interest groups involved in these institutionalisation processes. This thesis suggests that the concept of policy transfer and problematisation of the dynamics of how and why certain development strategies, policies and discourses become selected, implemented and sustained at the border municipalities offers a fruitful theoretical and political framework for examining the abovementioned issues. Accordingly, the thesis studies the intertwined relationship between local agency and the mobilisation of scalar institutional structures in regional planning and policy transfer processes by applying the Cultural Political Economy approach and strategic-relational theory on institutions (see Jessop & Sum 2013) as theoretical-methodological lenses. The thesis consists of three original research articles that form a scalar and temporal continuum. The empirical research is based on interviews conducted with key municipal and regional actors (i.e. planners, politicians, project managers and entrepreneurs), historical document material reaching back to the 1930s, as well as supplementary policy documents produced at various governmental levels. Both critical discourse analysis and content analysis are used as analysis methods. As the dynamics of municipal planning are reflected primarily against the formal institutional planning system in Finland, the study focuses on the Finnish side of the border — the Finnish Tornio Valley and the Kemi-Tornio sub-region. The results underline that the institutionalisation of cross-border co-operation as a key development strategy has been a long path-dependent process in which policy transfer processes and local mobilisation have become intertwined. While the “large-scale” development follows the Finnish national development — the transition from state-led, topdown politics to a more bottom-up, region-based development model — the investigation of these policy transfer processes also shows that the border location and the mobilisation of both the “border region identity” and the EU’s cross-border co-operation policy discourse have had a marked impact on the development path. Accordingly, they have furthered the development towards cross-border regionalisation. Moreover, border municipalities are challenging the state’s authority and the subordinated municipality-state relation by invoking this development. This development, however, is regionally contested and exemplifies the power relations both between municipalities with/without state border as well as between public and private sector actors. In the end, which development strategies become dominant or discarded in a particular context depends on how different actors and interest groups mobilise their privileged positions in relation to surrounding formal and informal institutional structures, such as municipal autonomy, EU cross-border cooperation funding schemes, trust relations, regional identity, and prevailing norms and customs. This research stands as an illustrative example that it is crucial not to consider these context-specific “soft” matters as somehow secondary to “rational” economic reasoning when investigating courses of action and economic development paths. / Original papers The original publications are not included in the electronic version of the dissertation. Jakola, F. (2016). Borders, planning and policy transfer: historical transformation of development discourses in the Finnish Torne Valley. European Planning Studies, 24(10), 1806–1824. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2016.1194808 http://jultika.oulu.fi/Record/nbnfi-fe2019102434646 Jakola, F. (2018). Local responses to state-led municipal reform in the Finnish-Swedish border region: conflicting development discourses, culture and institutions. Fennia - International Journal of Geography, 196(2), 137–153. https://doi.org/10.11143/fennia.69890 http://jultika.oulu.fi/Record/nbnfi-fe201903088103 Jakola, F., & Prokkola, E.-K. (2017). Trust Building or Vested Interest? Social Capital Processes of Cross-Border Co-Operation in the Border Towns of Tornio and Haparanda. Tijdschrift Voor Economische En Sociale Geografie, 109(2), 224–238. https://doi.org/10.1111/tesg.12279 http://jultika.oulu.fi/Record/nbnfi-fe2019102434644

This thesis discusses the relationship between space (physical and figurative) and sovereign power, with respect to the history of the United States' immigration and boundary policy. It examines spatial organization as a social product, and simultaneously a producer of mainstream associations of illegal activity at the border with Mexico. It begins with a brief introduction to a spatially informed analytical framework, a history of relevant United States' immigration policy. The paper then uses newspaper coverage from the 1970s and 1980s to examine the local and national rise of xenophobia in the United States, and the normalization of boundary control and associated illegality. The socio-spatial evaluation of federal policy and public sentiment culminates with a discussion of the border policies developed by the United States Border Patrol in the early 1990s. The strategy introduced focused on preventing immigration by deterring migrants from the attempt. This plan was necessarily spatial in nature as it sought to displace migrants from ideal crossing spaces to sites vulnerable to capture by the Border Patrol. Ultimately, the history of the United States boundary with Mexico demonstrates the power of controlling a territory, and controlling a social narrative.

Gegenstand der Arbeit stellten die deutsch-polnischen und deutsch-tschechischen Euroregionen dar. Sie wurden als ein offenes System betrachtet, das sich aus den in Wechselwirkung stehenden Elementen zusammensetzt: Raum, Grenze, Netzwerk und Umfeld. Diese ganzheitliche, intertemporale Betrachtung der Euroregionen ermöglichte es, dieses komplexe Phänomen besser zur verstehen, Erkenntnisse zur Bedeutung, zum Typus und zu Perspektiven der deutsch-polnischen und deutsch-tschechischen Euroregionen zu gewinnen sowie die gestellten Hypothesen zu überprüfen und zu verifizieren. Die Untersuchungen zur Rolle der deutsch-polnischen und deutsch-tschechischen Euroregionen bezogen sich insbesondere auf die Ermittlung der Bedeutung euroregionaler Netzwerke für die Grenzräume, bei gleichzeitiger Berücksichtigung der Wechselwirkungen mit anderen Elementen des euroregionalen Systems. Hierzu wurde eine Bilanzierung und Evaluierung der bisherigen Arbeit euroregionaler Netzwerke durchgeführt und die Wechselwirkungen analysiert. Im Rahmen der typologischen Untersuchungen wurde nachgewiesen, dass die deutsch-polnischen und deutsch-tschechischen Euroregionen, trotz bestimmter Abweichungen, einen einheitlichen Typus verkörpern. Des Weiteren hat sich herausgestellt, dass die deutsch-polnischen und deutsch-tschechischen Euroregionen sich hinsichtlich der institutionellen, netzwerkrelevanten Aspekte in einer der Entwicklungsphasen westeuropäischer Euregios befinden. Nicht zutreffend ist jedoch diese Aussage in Bezug auf die räumlichen Aspekte. In Anlehnung an die Untersuchungsergebnisse zum evolutionären Charakter der euroregionalen Netzwerke und die bevorstehenden Veränderungen wurden auch die Perspektiven der deutsch-polnischen und deutsch-tschechischen Euroregionen aufgezeigt und anschließend Vorschläge zur Weiterentwicklung und Effizienzsteigerung der euroregionalen Netzwerke erarbeitet. / Theme of the work represented the German-Polish and German-Czech euroregions. They were regarded as an open system, that consists of the in an interaction standing elements: space, border, network and surroudings. All these elements are interdependent. This holistic and inter temporal consideration of the euroregion allowed a better understanding of this complex phenomenon. Besides this, knoweledge concerning importance, type and perspectives of the German-Polish and German-Czech euroregions was acquired and the thesis could be checked and verified. The research of the role of the German-Polish and German-Czech euroregions refered to the verification of importance of the euroregional networks for borderline. The interaction was regarded at the same time with other elements of euroregional system. There was conducted balancing and evaluation of actual euroregional network’s work and analysed the interaction. Following the results of basic analyses was done a typological consideration of those euroregions. It was showed due to exsiting differences and the specific charasteristics the German-Polisch and German-Czech euroregions are of a seperate type.The hypothesis claiming that the German-Polish and German-Czech euroregions represent a development’s phase of the Western European Euregios is only acceptable in the view of the institutional aspects. In the scope of this analysis it was shown that German-Polish and German-Czech. The research’s results of evolutional character of the euroregional networks and forthcoming changes were unlocked the perspectives of the German-Polish and German-Czech euroregions. The proposals for further progress and effective elevation of euroregional network were processed.

This study analyzed trends in access and success of students admitted through the Top 10% admissions policy. The study employs a comparative analysis between public universities from the Borderland region and the two top-tier public universities in Texas. This Texas admissions policy provides students in the top 10% of their graduating high school class admission to any state 4-year public university. Therefore, this policy implies that being a top 10% student equates to being college ready for any public university in Texas, regardless of selectivity or top tier status. Research on the Texas Top 10% policy has focused on its success in improving diversity and student performance at the two top-tier public universities in Texas, The University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University. However, enrollment disparity continues at these elite institutions between Whites, Latina/os and Blacks. Additionally, the Texas Borderland region is an intersection of large Latina/o demographics; distance from top-tier institutions; and great disparities in economic development, health, and education. Combining the aforementioned conditions, we know little about the access and success of Borderland top 10% students, particularly in comparing the two public top tier universities in Texas to the alternative choice of their local Borderland university. This study used mixed methods to compare the trends in access and success of Borderland students admitted under the Top 10% admissions policy at Borderland universities and at top-tier public universities, and additionally controlled for student characteristics in explaining student persistence and graduation. The quantitative analysis used student-level descriptive and inferential statistics with data facilitated by Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The qualitative section of this dissertation used focus-group interviews with 36 students at 5 Borderland universities and 1 top-tier university to explain their success. This study applies Bourdieu's theoretical framework of social and cultural capitals and habitus to interpret the findings. Results indicated student differentiation between institutions in access, success, and explanations. Ethnicity, gender, family income, and college generation status influence differences in enrollment between institutions, in which all together influenced differences in graduation and persistence. On the other hand, the interviews revealed that personal effort and institutional resources also explained differences in student success. This study provides implications for further research and policy considerations. / text

The United States international land boundary is a volatile, security intense area. In 2010, the combined trade was $918 billion within North American nations, with 80% transported by commercial trucks. Over 50 million commercial vehicles cross the Texas/Mexico border every year, not including private vehicles and pedestrian traffic, between Brownsville and El Paso, Texas, through one of over 25 major border crossings called "ports of entry" (POE). Recently, securing our southwest border from terrorist interventions, undocumented immigrants, and the illegal flow of drugs and guns has dominated the need to efficiently and effectively process people, goods and traffic. Increasing security and inspection requirements are seriously affecting transit times. Each POE is configured as a multi-commodity, prioritized queueing network which rarely, if ever, operates in steady-state. Therefore, the problem is about finding a balance between a reduction of wait time and its variance, POE operation costs, and the sustainment of a security level. The contribution of the dissertation is three-fold. The first uses queueing theory on the border crossing process to develop a methodology that decreases border wait times without increasing costs or affecting security procedures. The outcome is the development of the Dynamic Reallocation Methodology (DRM). Currently at the POE, inspection stations are fixed and can only inspect one truck type, FAST or Non-FAST program participant. The methodology proposes moveable servers that once a threshold is met, can be switched to service the other type of truck. Particular emphasis is given to inspection (service) times under time-varying arrivals (demands). The second contribution is an analytical model of the POE, to analyze the effects of the DRM. First assuming a Markovian service time, DRM benefits are evaluated. However, field data and other research suggest a general distribution for service time. Therefore, a Coxian k-phased approximation is implemented. The DRM is analyzed under this new baseline using expected number in the system, and cycle times. A variance reduction procedure is also proposed and evaluated under DRM. Results show that queue length and wait time is reduced 10 to 33% depending on load, while increasing FAST wait time by less than three minutes.

Taking as its subject the Russo-Ottoman borderland during the period between the Treaty of Berlin (1878) and the start of the First World War (1914), and making extensive use of Ottoman archival documents covering this period, this thesis focuses on the ways in which the Ottoman state attempted to establish two types of boundary in order to ensure sovereignty over its territory. Firstly, there was a new geo-political border, the line dividing the Russian and Ottoman Empires at the juncture of north-eastern Anatolia and the southern Caucasus, created by the Treaty of Berlin. Secondly, there was what can be called a citizenship boundary, shaped by various laws and regulations defining the Ottoman citizenry. The main issues examined in respect of the first boundary are various types of human movement across this border and their control by the Ottoman state. Primary concerns regarding the second boundary revolve around the inclusion in and exclusion from the Ottoman citizenship of ethno-religious groups as a result of the Ottoman state's enforcement of the border. Our approach to studying how the citizenship boundary was established is two-fold, reflecting both local and state perspectives. The local perspective shows the actions of the inhabitants and travellers passing through this border region as shaped by their own day-to-day needs, livelihood patterns and pre-existing socio-economic relations; these resisted limitation by the logic of the sovereign state. The state perspective reflects the Ottoman view of Russia as the main threat to its border territories; this view led the Ottoman central authorities to perceive the entanglements and overlapping positions of its subjects in and with Russia as the cause of their ambiguous loyalties to the Ottoman state. In focusing on the specific policies and practices that the Ottoman state applied in order to deal with this ambiguity, two groups of people, Muslims and Armenians, are singled out. Notwithstanding the all-embracing state laws and discourse of legal equality, Ottoman border policy in respect of its Muslim subjects is shown to have differed greatly from that designed for its Armenian subjects. Therefore, the thesis offers a nuanced framework with which to understand Ottoman citizenship in the Russo-Ottoman border context, by revealing the normative and practical measures the Ottoman state employed to classify its Muslim and Armenian populations, thereby differentiating their status as subjects. This thesis - the first English-language work on the Russo-Ottoman border region during the late nineteenth century and pre-WWI period- offers a range of original insights into this borderland in particular and related issues more generally. It unfolds the details of everyday life and represents the local people as active agents - active, moreover, in relation both to the changing nature and effectiveness of the state's assertion of territorial authority and also to the differences between the two empires' policies and practices. Overall, the thesis focuses on the end-of-empire border politics and the issue of Ottoman citizenship not only from the perspective of macro-level political developments and central state power but also in terms of the peripheral specificities of administration and the movements and subjecthood choices of villagers. Thus, this thesis presents a new type of multi-faceted account of borderland development in which ethno-religious considerations came to inform a somewhat messy production of sovereignty in the context of the modernizing transition between empire and nation-state.

The thesis deals with cross-border cooperation and the influence of socio-economic development of this cooperation. The aim of the thesis is to assess the socio-economic development situation, determining the causes of decline and its persistence in the border regions. The work is divided into two main parts - theoretical and practical. The theoretical part deals with regional policy, cross-border cooperation and cross-border cooperation tools. The practical part deals with socio-economic and SWOT analysis of the South Region.

The growth in Laos’ economy has been increasingly important in terms of consumption and tourism within Thailand. Currently, however, few studies have attempted to develop a marketing strategy for regional retailers in this emerging nation. This research is concerned with developing an appropriate marketing strategy that balances supply and demand within this regional market. Given that marketing relies heavily on understanding consumer behaviour, the objectives of this study are, first, to develop a cross-border shopper taxonomy in a regional market using benefit segmentation. In order to develop this marketing strategy, the research identified consumer expectations in order to explore how to achieve a competitive advantage that matches consumer needs with the available supplies. This cross-border shopping taxonomy provides a starting point for a holistic evaluation that will assist retailers in making marketing decisions. The study then attempts to understand the current market situations and marketing in practice from the perspective of suppliers. After assessing the correspondence between demand and supply, recommendations on strategic marketing are offered to Thai retailers at the end of the investigation. This study employed both quantitative and qualitative research methods, with 337 questionnaires and seven in-depth interviews. The survey was conducted in Thailand between December 2013 and January 2014. The data were collected from three provinces in the northeast region of Thailand that share a border with Laos: Nongkhai, Mukdahan and Nakorn Phanom. These provinces have high potential in respect to both tourism and retail developments. In addition, the seven interviewees with retailers and policy planners examined the implementation of market segmentation and marketing strategies. The data from the interviews was interpreted and compared with the quantitative data in order to investigate the correspondence between supply and demand. In order to classify cross-border shoppers, the major statistical analyses used were EFA and cluster analysis based on benefits sought. Segments were profiled with travel behaviour, shopping behaviour and demographic variables. ANOVA and MANOVA were employed to test differences between groups. After that, the research explored expectations through the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) in order to identify priorities for developing a competitive advantage. The results show that cross-border shoppers in the regional markets of Thailand consist of four segments: the Enthusiastic shoppers, the Leisure-tourist shoppers, the Product-focused shoppers and the Practical shoppers. These segments relate to the benefits sought, and correlate with different demographic variables, shopping activities and consumption patterns. Moreover, they have different expectations towards place attributes which are important for designing a marketing strategy that is suitable to each segment. Unfortunately, the interviewees from the supply side provided less marketing response to the cross-border tourist marketing. The implications of the findings are, first, that benefit segmentation is associated with demographic variables, shopping activities and expenditures. In addition, the evidence suggests some misunderstandings on the part of suppliers in respect to cross-border demand. The evaluation of demand and supply contributed recommendations for the design and management of effective marketing strategies for cross-border shoppers in this emerging nation.