Conference - Contesting borders
2023-05-30 10:30 - 17:30 UTC | Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy
This workshop aims at bridging together critical border studies with migration studies and social movement studies, as those fields have been rarely put into dialogue. To that end, it investigates the notion of border and its interaction with collective and individual solidarity initiatives, exploring these from a theoretical and empirical perspective.
In the morning session, three prominent scholars in the field of critical border studies, crimmigration and migration and security studies discuss borders intended as spaces of contention and not only as territorial boundaries between states or state-like political entities. In doing so, they investigate those solidarity activities that take place at the borders in the European and US areas to support people on the move attempting to cross them, also reflecting from such perspective on smuggling activities and on their criminalization.
In the afternoon session, we bring the discussion to a policy and operational level, hosting a roundtable with representatives from solidarity groups and networks operating at the French-Italian border, along the Western Balkan route and in the Mediterranean sea. They engage in a debate on how they conceive of their activities (as political, contentious, humanitarian?) and the connected implications.
More info at: https://www.sns.it/it/evento/contesting-borders

European policy event - Transnational Political Contention and the protection of rights and democracy in Europe
2023-06-07 09:00 - 13:00 | Maastricht University, Brussels, Belgium
The concluding event of the Jean Monnet Network “Transnational Political Contention and the protection of rights and democracy in Europe” will take place in Brussels, on June 7, 2023

Transnational political dynamics are growing: some question the EU liberal order, while others contribute to strengthening democratic guarantees at the European and domestic level as well in candidate countries. The TraPoCo (Transnational Political Contention in Europe) Jean Monnet network contributed to developing a field of research that looks at the interaction of practices and processes that cross the borders of nation-states and have an impact on the functioning of democracy inside and outside the Union.
TraPoCo scholars focused on the advancement of research on the practices of mobilisation and protest of actors such as social movements, activists, civil society organisations, trade unions, etc. in transnational political arenas on issues relating to European integration. In particular, TraPoCo looked at how, in what forms, and under what conditions the societal actors that work for the enlargement of the space of fundamental rights benefit from transnational political spaces at EU level and, in turn, contribute to European integration in some form and reinvigorate democracy in the EU and its Member States.
This event will be an opportunity for TraPoCo partners to share their most cutting-edge research outcomes with civil society and policy-makers, with a focus on policy implications at the EU level.

Dissemination event - Transnational solidarities in the Balkans: Migration Justice Worldmaking
2023-06-19 14:30 - 17:00 | Roda, Zagreb, Croatia (Local Name: Hrvatska)
The dissemination & policy event, organized by Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa, in cooperation with the Institute for Development and International Relations, aims at disseminating the research findings of the Jean Monnet TraPoCO Network beyond its core partners, targeting think tanks, NGO practitioners, as well as local civil society organizations, policy-makers and other interested stakeholders.
It will in particular focus on the Western Balkans migratory route, which has been largely crossed since the 2015 long summer of migration by people on the move striving to access the territory of the European Union to lodge an asylum claim. In this context, Croatia, the most recent member to join the EU in 2013, has played a pivotal role in containing the passage of migrants also by means of violence, as denounced by Amnesty International, amongst others.
Today’s meeting will delve into the role of transnational solidarity groups, whose support activities continued also during the pandemic, although being restricted by the measures enforced, in the country and at the border between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, where migrants are still trapped at the external borders of the EU. Besides presenting the findings of a research conducted in the aftermath of the pandemic amongst grassroots solidarity groups, the meeting will benefit from the intervention of well-known activists for human rights engaged in the country to support people on the move and active in denouncing the violation of human rights at the borders of the EU. The activists will also present an update about the situation of people on the move still traversing the Western Balkans migratory route. Moreover, the results of the research dealing with the opportunities and limitations offered by the European space to civil society organizations will further the debate concerning the context in which civil society actors are embedded.
