Bordering Practices in the EU’s Eastern Borderland/s: Conceptualizing Space (and Community) within and without Europe

Borders—and, more specifically, bordering practices—are among the most powerful signifiers shaping global, regional, national, and local dynamics. Their effects extend across political, geographical, and cognitive dimensions. To understand these dynamics, we adopt the concept of ‘borderlands’ to denote spaces of flux, where multiple bordering practices coexist, and borders are simultaneously produced and effaced. The European Union (EU)’s Eastern Neighbourhood serves as an exemplary case of such borderlands, with particular attention to developments in the Western Balkans, the Eastern Partnership, and the Russian Federation. This introductory article provides the conceptual framework for a set of multidisciplinary contributions that investigate the complex interplay between bordering practices and the transformation of borderlands in the EU’s East.