Spatial Dynamics of Regional Integration in French-German Border Areas

阿尔萨斯和洛林属于欧洲大都市，不仅有许多国家的边界，而且还有西欧的主要语言分歧。在欧盟一体化的背景下，可以观察到这一区域内极其多样和密集的跨境联系。在这项研究项目中，我们研究了这些不同联系的几个方面，即跨境通勤、跨境移民、外国公司的直接投资、跨境类型的地区(或市政)协会等。随着边境管制的取消，阿尔萨斯-洛林的国界已经失去了作为旅客障碍的意义。今天，这一地区的居民几乎没有察觉到这些政治边界在他们日常生活中的影响。但是，正如我们在实地调查中所观察到的那样，在司法、体制和文化方面，国界仍然是空间上不连续的线，这继续构成建设跨境协会的重要障碍。从这个意义上说，国界的地理意义仍然是欧洲区域地理学中最有趣的问题之一。

Alsace and Lorraine belong to European Megalopolis, which has been characterized not only by many national boundaries, but also by main linguistic divide of Western Europe. Under the integration of European Union, one can observe the extremely diverse and intensive connections of transborder type in this zone. We have examined in this research project several aspects of these diverse connections, that is, transborder commuting, transborder migration, direct investment of foreign companies, regional ( or municipal ) associations of transborder type, and so on. With the abolishments of border controls, national boundaries of Alsace-Lorraine have lost its significance as an obstacle to passengers. Today, inhabitants in this area hardly perceive the influence of these political boundaries in their everyday life. But, as observed in our fieldwork, national boundaries remain the spatially discontinuous lines in terms of juridical, institutional, and cultural aspects, which continue to form an important obstacle to the construction of transborder associations. In this sense, the geographical meaning of national boundaries remain to be one of most interesting questions in the regional geography of Europe.