Issue ? 46. Oсtober 2014

Theorizing on Cross-Border Governance: from Emergence of the Concept to its Current Understanding

Ph.D. student, Faculty of Public and Municipal Administration, National Research Institute — Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation.
E-mail: mikhaylovaev@yandex.ru

The paper provides an overview of theorizing on the cross-border governance concept. Based on the literature review, the author reveals that albeit the determiner of the whole term is “governance”, the managerial remarks on it are few and fragmented while the majority of definitions demonstrate clear Political Science slant. The heterogeneity of interpretations is explained by the complex multidimensional nature of studied phenomenon and attempts to explore it from standpoints of various disciplines. The emergence of the idea of coordinative governance beyond the borders is described as a result of the evolutionary process of understanding the contact function of the borderlands. Border regions and border municipalities are named the chief initiators of project work to implement governance beyond the borders. Taking into consideration peculiarities, advantages and limitations of managerial practices on the sub-national and local level, the author stresses the need for further research and conceptualization of cross-border governance.

Keywords

Cross-border governance, transborder territorial units, sustainable development of the borderland, management of border regions, management of border municipalities.