"Bosnian Borderland": the production of space in border cities
Résumé
Border studies have come a long way from the studies of the hard territorial line separating states within the international system, to the contemporary studies of borders which focus on the process of bordering itself. The lines which represent borders are as flexible as they were once thought to be rigid, reflecting new territorial and spatial patterns of human behaviour (Newman 2003). The dynamics of the 175- km long border zone between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, which together with the other four constituent countries, formed Yugoslavia (1945-1992), are analysed in this paper. This zone belongs to the geographical region known as Bosanska Krajina (Bosnian Borderland), which has a significant multicultural and dynamic identity that has been constructed since the Middle Ages. Well known as the final border between the Ottoman East and the Austro-Hungarian West, between Europe and the European alter-ego represented in the Balkans (Todorova 1999), today, as a border between the EU and non-EU countries, it is exposed to the ongoing migratory processes. The dynamics and transitions that have occurred in the border-lands are analysed considering: 1. conceived or conceptualized space, 2. perceived or physical space, and 3. lived space, the space of representations, which is the result of first and second space duality (Lefebvre 1991). Within this methodological framework, designed to explore a wider context of border landscapes construction, the focus of the analysis is placed on the system of borderline cities of Bosanska Krajina – taking a border road trip from the city of Bihac, passing through the cities of Novi Grad, Kostajnica, Kozarska Dubica and Gradiska, with specific stop points at their border crossings. Following methods and techniques are applied in order to grasp the complex nature of border landscapes in analysed cities: 1. documentary sources and interviews are used to explore conceived space; 2. urban morphology analysis and photography are used to analyse perceived space and its spatiality; and 3. lived space is analysed through narratives and interviews with inhabitants by mapping their everyday life experience related to the dynamics of border activities (real estate, trade economy, traffic, culture, etc.). This paper provides a deeper understanding of urban and social dynamics in the border cities of Bosanska Krajina. It identifies the main characteristics of the production of space considering the particularities of the analysed context. On that basis, it aims to bring new insights into the ongoing studies of bordering discourse.