Elzbieta Opilowska

• Associate Professor & Head of the Center for Regional and Borderlands Studies at University of Wrocław

This article aims to explore the transformation processes of European border regions, illustrated in a comparative case study of Franco-German and German-Polish borderlands. It applies ‘resilience’ as a conceptual framework, understanding this as the threefold ability to withstand a disruptive event, to adapt to new circumstances, and to launch a t...

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has once again brought borders to the center of attention, as journalists, authorities, and scholars have grappled with the pandemic. The coronavirus outbreak, which began in late 2019 and early 2020 has caused tremendous personal, economic, and social upheaval. As many states decided to pursue the n...

Die Covid-19-Pandemie und die zahlreichen Grenzbeschränkungen haben 2020/2021 zahlreiche soziale, wirtschaftliche und politische Folgen für die Grenzregionen mit sich gebracht. Die vorübergehende Schließung der Grenzen hat sich nicht nur auf das Leben der Grenzbewohner:innen ausgewirkt, deren Alltagspraktiken im transnationalen Raum eingebettet sin...

Since February 24, 2022, we have been witnessing the next stage of what began in the 2014 Russo-Ukrainian War: a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. For the first time in the history of the European Union, the intensive armed conflict is now approaching the border of the EU and Schengen Zone. The consequences of war: the refugee crisis, humani...

W ramach projektu "(De/Re)Konstruowanie granic — narracje i imaginacje o miastach podzielonych w Europie Środkowej w perspektywie porównawczej", realizowanego w Ośrodku Badań Regionalnych i Obszarów Pogranicza ukazała się książka prezentująca najważniejsze wnioski z prowadzonych badań: "Narracje o miastach podzielonych w Europie Środkowej: Słubice...

The notion of narratives can be regarded as a significant tool to map the complex means by which social relations are organized, made meaningful, and maintained (Somers, 1994). On the borders of Europe, social relations are often constructed across national dividing lines. Especially now, given the social consequences of COVID-19, which include re-...

The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked numerous unintended social and political consequences, especially for border regions as many European states decided to temporarily close their borders. This decision had a tremendous effect not only on the work of various actors in border towns, but also on the lives of borderlanders, whose daily practices are emb...

This book explores the political and social dynamics of the bilateral relations between Germany and Poland at the national and subnational levels, taking into account the supranational dynamics, across such different policy areas as trade, foreign and security policy, energy, fiscal issues, health and social policy, migration and local governance....

Die Corona-Pandemie und ihre Folgen haben dem alten Thema Grenze auf der ganzen Welt, aber auch in ganz Europa, ja sogar innerhalb vieler europäischer Länder eine kaum für möglich gehaltene neue Aktualität verliehen. Deutlich wurde dies für breite Bevölkerungskreise, aber natürlich vor allem für die von den Grenzschließungen betroffenen Bürger, u.a...

This article reflects on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and border control measures on the narratives and experience of territorial borders and the social construction of boundaries. The Covid-19 crisis has revealed how strong and durable territorial borders still are and how rapidly the idea of a borderless Europe might change in divided E...

Up until the fall of the Iron Curtain Poland was institutionally and ideologically a unitary state. The accession process to the European Union enforced the adoption of necessary reforms of the administrative structures, which were undertaken in the 1990s. Since then Poland has developed a three-tier governance structure and enhanced the role of re...

Die Versöhnungsmesse in Kreisau am 12. November 1989 mit Beteiligung des deutschen Bundeskanzlers Helmut Kohl und des polnischen Premierministers Tadeusz Mazowiecki gilt, neben dem Kniefall von Willy Brandt, als Symbol einer neuen Ära in den deutsch-polnischen Beziehungen. Als Ikone der deutsch-französischen Verständigung ging der sog. Händedruck v...

For several years, border(lands) studies have been developing intensively in many disciplines, resulting in numerous publications and research projects as well as in a wide range of concepts and methods. Thus, borders are no longer perceived only as geographical lines separating states and communities, but also as polysemous spaces constructed in d...

After the fall of communism in 1989, the German–Polish border assumed the role of a bridge in the reconciliation process between the two neighbours. From the beginning of Poland’s accession process to the European Community, the aim of national and regional policy was a ‘returning to Europe’ as well as the final confirmation of the Polish western b...

Le régionalisme est un phénomène multidimensionnel qui puise dans l’histoire, la culture, l’économie et les politiques. Après des décennies d’uniformité idéologique et institutionnelle, la Pologne, au début des années 1990, était libre de commencer les processus de régionalisation. La politique de coopération transfrontalière de l’Union européenne...

As Europeanisation flourishes, the importance of diverse perspectives, attitudes, and approaches becomes increasingly pertinent. This book explores the interdisciplinary nature of diversity in Europe. In order to truly understand the complexities of the diversity phenomenon, it is necessary to explore this concept under the scope of many different...

Die Publikation Arbeitnehmerfreizügigkeit zwischen Deutschland und Polen geht auf die internationale und interdisziplinäre Konferenz: Arbeitnehmerfreizügigkeit zwischen Polen und Deutschland – eine interdisziplinäre Bilanz nach 1,5 Jahren zurück, die am 11. Oktober 2012 an der Europa-Universität Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) in Kooperation mit dem W...

This article aims to analyze the impact of the policy of détente in the 1970s on the development of the German-Polish borderland and on grassroots cooperation. Opening the border for non-visa and non-passport traffic on 1 January 1972 was of great importance to mutual relations between the residents of the border regions. In the first period, Germa...

Den Schwerpunkt dieser Studie bildet die Geschichtspolitik in der geteilten Stadt Görlitz/Zgorzelec, von der Teilung der Stadt und der Aufnahme der Flüchtlinge und Aussiedler über den Görlitzer Vertrag, die Freundschaftspropaganda und die Grenzöffnung der siebziger Jahre bis zur jüngsten Entwicklung der Europastadt. Polnische und deutsche Archive,...