This year, the annual conference of the Transfrontier Euro-Institute Network took place at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) on the German-Polish border and was integrated in the international conference “Contesting 21st Century B/Orders”. In cooperation with TEIN and the international research network Borders in Globalization (BIG), the TEIN member Viadrina Research Centre B/ORDERS IN MOTION organised this interdisciplinary conference on the occasion of its tenth anniversary.

From 6 to 8 September 2023, 150 international academics and practitioners came together to discuss current issues in border research. The main topic was the question of how new forms of border demarcation are changing social orders in the 21st century and how the borders of today’s world are being shaped.

The conference programme was structured along three thematic strands in which participants could attend panels. Current research and reflections on (1) territorial and geopolitical borders, (2) symbolic, social and discursive border demarcations, and (3) migration and borders were presented and discussed.

The TEIN Annual Conference with its two panels was held in this framework took place on the second day of the conference and focused on the topic “21st Century B/Orders & Civil Society”. The first TEIN panel dealt with local cooperation and public services, the second with the role of civil society in border regions. These panels contained presentations from members of TEIN and BIG and were organised by the Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION in cooperation with the Institute of Local Government Studies of the University of Potsdam. Different TEIN members discussed among other things cross-border social services from the legal perspective, questions on citizen participation in border regions or digitisation in municipalities in Germany and in France.

The conference ended with a Polish-German-Canadian roundtable where the participants could follow an interesting and stimulating discussion on the topic “Contested 21st Century B/Orders: Challenges for Transnational Research”.

The interdisciplinary conference successfully contributed to current academic debates in border research and facilitated exchange among researchers and practitioners. A big thank you to our member Viadrina Research Centre B/ORDERS IN MOTION and the European University Viadrina for the great cooperation and organisation of the conference!