Notions of border in regionalism theory and praxis: a critical overview

The objective of this article is to provide a concise and critical overview of the notions of border within regionalism theory and praxis. It also aims at discussing the last decade’s increase of border barriers in this globalized world and its relation to regionalism. We provide a historical approach to theoretical construction and consider implied ideas of border derived from theoretical and empirical developments of regionalism. This paper finds that old regionalism indicates a notion of border as separation; new regionalism implies a notion of border as filter. The current wave of comparative regionalism identifies two apparently contradictory processes (multilevel regionalisms and nationalisms) that actuate the formation of (cross) border-regions embedded into tangled webs of global networks, which requires a globalist perspective of regionalist dynamics.