The phenomenon of borderlands
Wojciech Opioła
University of Opolehttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-2473-3375
Aleksandra Trzcielińska-Polus
University of Opolehttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-2610-5639
Abstract
The article aims at explaining the reasons for creating the journal, as well as causes for which „borderland” should be an important field within the frames of political science. The authors explain their own understanding of borderland – the place which is constituted by the existence of a border. Global political, social, economic and cultural changes that have occured in recent decades demand the widening of the definition of borderlands. Today it is not only the area next to the border, because the border must be defined in broader terms. The function of the border has been changed in such a way that today bordelands exist even in regions which are ethnically or nationally homogenous. In the latter part of the article the authors explain these phenomena in more detail, and give a short descritpion of Opole Silesia and the features which make it a cross-border region.
