Hardi Tamás - Tóth Károly (szerk.): Határaink mentén. A szlovák-magyar határtérség társadalmi-gazdasági vizsgálata (2008) (Somorja, 2009)
Esettanulmányok
Summary 209 poses. Our experiences suggest that these phenomena are important but their significance is relatively small compared to those natural processes that bind the border regions and strengthen its integration. INTEGRATION OF THE BORDER REGION Border regions are those areas along the state borders whose life and socio-economic processes are considerably influenced by the existence of the state border (Hansen, 1983). By now the separating role of the borders within the European Union has weakened in importance. We do have to emphasise the fact that the extension of the border region is now regulated not (only) by the state border itself but also the spatial structural characteristics of the separated border areas, the cross-border linkages of the urban and transport networks, and the different socio-economic features of the two sides of the borders. These factors together make those cross-border civil and economic movements that make the border regions of the nation state areas so peculiar. These days and in the region in our survey those areas can be taken as border regions whose everyday lives are basically influenced by the interactions maintained with the neighbour border region. The literature on spatial borders more and more often refers to the fact of practical life that the sharp separation of regions (areas belonging to different states in this place) is now outdated and its more and more transitory zones among the systems that become typical (Fleischer, 2001 ; Novotny, 2007). In reality the two definitions together are valid, as the role of the state border shaping the spatial structure still cannot be neglected, even if the physical barrier of the state border has ceased to exist in the case of the internal Schengen borders. Even in the case of the total elimination of the state border (like the internal German border) the borderline lives on coming from its historical role, as it played an important role in creating the development and network characteristics of the border region during the development of the nation state. The internal borders of the EU only secure the complete freedom of border crossing; the differences of the nation state systems regulating everyday life still exist. The external borders of the European Union and the non-EU borders are still a physical barrier to the free development of interactions. This double definition thus involves the functional approach to the border region and is less suitable for the designations on administrative grounds. We can see that neither definition allows us to make a sharp and exact designation of the border regions, as each function has its own space of action different from the others: employment creates a catchment area different from that of shopping etc. Also, in many places we must make a compromise, e.g. when making the reference area of this present survey. Based on the findings of our researches conducted beforehand, we automatically specified a 20-kilometre stripe as border region, then we enlarged this zone on empirical ground by mostly urban areas that are the centres of the cross-border movements and the first important stations along the roads crossing the borders. Our definition of border region can be based on the examination of the following phenomena: — We must look at the position of the border region in the order of the regions of the neighbour countries by level of spatial development; also, the introduction of the development disparities among the border regions gives us important information. Besides the featuring of the structural basis and the centre-periphery relations it is important to know those development axes of spatial development that have been or are bom in the frameworks of spatial units, macro-regions bigger than the nation states. These may be determined by the urban network, the historical
