Social planning and European contact areas: political geography in place
Planowanie społeczne w europejskich obszarach stykowych: geografia polityczna miejsca

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with the issue of planning social and spatial integration in the so--called contact areas, where different political and cultural units meet and interlace. Thestudy of such areas copes both with the persistent and immanent forms of territoriality inhuman beings and increasing quests for functional social, economic and spatial(re)integration. Both trends lead towards a multi-level and often contradictory relationshipbetween different territories and borders, which emerge from the simultaneouslydeveloping processes of social and spatial convergence and divergence. For this reason,both theory and practice of political geography are permanently challenged by shiftingpolicies of integration and/or separation, and social and spatial planning in Europeanmulticultural and border regions appears to be a difficult, almost Sisyphean task. Yet, itis central to the creation of more stable opportunities for both coexistence and development.This article provides a review of author’s considerations of political geographicaltransformations and issues related to European contact areas in the pre-modern, modernand post-modern period, with special emphasis on minorities and cross-border cooperation,suggesting to promote an integrative and multilevel approach that could somehowreplace the classic "national" policies in relation to border areas development andminority protection.

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