Abstract
This dissertation examines the 'open' Dutch-German border and people's everyday practices in relation to this border within the context of Dutch-German relations and the process of European integration. For, despite the opening of this border in 1993, it has not disappeared and continues to form an obstacle to cross-border interaction. When examining the internal borders of the European Union, structural barriers to cross-border interaction are normally taken into account, while people's perceptions of borders are ignored. This treatise, however, concentrates on the latter by looking at the 'open' Dutch-German border and people's practices of crossing it - or not. The work addresses the question 'why - and how - the Dutch-German border remains so significant in people's minds and lives'. This is tied to the assumption that geopolitical changes such as the official opening of the European Union's internal borders require new methodologies and forms of border research, e.g. on borders in people's minds. The methodology introduced is therefore concerned with the construction of bordered spaces and everyday practices of (not-) crossing a border, with the performed manners of nationalised daily routines. Borders are framed as constructed by narratives and images that are not only representations, but actively shape people's everyday lives. One objective is to understand borders as representations - representations in the sense of images and imaginations. This includes a reflection on the productive site of representations, i.e. the ways meanings are produced through representations' interpretations by people. In order to explore this in more detail and to apply it to the Dutch-German border, two parts of the dissertation examine popular Dutch-German representations and their receptions. The investigation finally also comprise the issue of cross-border governance and compares 'bordered practices' with 'transnational practices' of people who live in a Dutch exclave in Germany
