The collaborative programme between the universities of Greifswald, Lund and Tartu "Baltic Borderlands”, invites papers, which examine the interaction and flows of people and their impact on current and historical spaces. Hereby, the borderland is a result of omnipresent intergroup and cultural interaction. We understand the borderland as present wherever people of different cultures meet (Anzaldúa, 1987: preface). The scope of the borderland goes beyond the territorial dimension to encompass mental and cultural interaction in abstract space. Since local and regional borderland areas serve as spaces of early adoption, of innovation and initiative for processes of trans-regional change and integration (Anderson/O´Dowd/Wilson, 2003; Pavlakovich-Kochi/Morehouse/Wastl-Walter, 2004), we like to focus on these processes in geographical and symbolic borderlands and the impact of these processes on network and organisation constructions in Europe.

Whilst our understanding of spaces and their construction is predominately geographical, we assume that the active creation of networks and organizational structures depend very much on social and cultural interactions which create, draw, dissolve and redraw borders. Therefore, it is worth redirecting the focus towards these processes of networking and organizing which have a considerable impact on the nature, form and size of the borderland and adjacent “larger entities such as empires, nations, or global networks” (Hämäläinen/ Truett, 2011: 358).

We therefore invite papers, which deal with intellectual, artistic, theological, political, historical, literary, economic, etc. networks and organisations, which had a considerable impact on the structural, regional and trans-regional development of Europe through the eyes of these networks and organisations. For instance, possible papers could deal with migrating intellectuals, or artists between east and west, or north and south, shaping cultural perceptions and production processes attached to spatial perceptions. Furthermore, questions about the rise and decline of companies, organisations, and networks in times of transition and redefinition of space from the Hansa to the current Ukrainian crisis can be considered to stress the importance of interactions in the borderland.

We invite scholars, young researchers and doctoral students from humanities and social sciences to submit abstracts in English of no more than 300 words and a short biographical note until 15 March 2015 to: waterproj12@uni-greifswald.de. Applicants will be notified by 15 April 2015.

The conference is organised by the doctoral students of the IRTG Baltic Borderlands.