Space and Identities at the South Eastern European Frontier

In this chapter, which is part of a larger collection on the issues of sustainable tourism and transport development in the Adriatic-Ionian region, Emilio Cocco discusses the notion of “frontier” with regards to the Adriatic-Ionian space. The concept of frontier is consider both for its ecological and social implication; thus, like all geo-morphological diversities, also the ones included in the notion of frontier are not just geographical phenomena but do mark symbolic differences and engender identity-making processes. The discussion starts with the critical reassessment of the 19th century natural borders theory, whereby the idea of natural border was interpreted as a metaphisical and predestined ideal to conquer and achieve, thus prolonging the illusion of a true natural order. Differently, from a sociological point of view, the author points out that the course of nature performs the function of support for cognitive social conventions. And these conventions, in turn, operate a a symbolic and mythical level, mainly bringing about implications for the settlement of the social order. In thsi perspective, which owns mostly to the revised functionalist framework of the anthropologist Mary Douglas, the symbolistation of the space is just one of the means to establish social unity and not necessarily the expression of the unity itself. And a realisation of a territorial order within certain geographical limits can only occur through a symbolic reiteration of their “naturalness”, as suggested by Marc Augé. For that reason, Emilio Cocco, addresses the problem of the troubled relations between territoy and society in Socuth-Eastern Europe by referring to the notions of spatiality (J. Agnew) and territoriality (Tuathail, Luke), which are important to disintangle the concepts of space and territory. Thus, these reflections are reversed into a concept of frontier that should work conceptually to explain the many typical conflicts of South Eastern Europe, where interactions between space, territory and identity are carachterised by frequent reference to the defence/preservation of a social identity. Consequently, Emilio Cocco articulates his discussion of the notion of frontier applied to the South Eastern European context by analysing and comparing a number of theoretical scholary work. Eventually, he makes an attempt to sketch out the dynamics of exlcusion and inclusion acording to the paradigm of cultural frontier. Eventually, he suggests that the notion of frontier could work both as a scholary and as a policy tool to challenge the problems of social conflict in South Eastern Europe.