Living on the Edge: Experiences and Responses to Europe's Changing Borderlands

This project connects new research on the experience of living in border communities in the early modern period with contemporary policy about the reformulation of Britain's and Europe’s borders post-Brexit. The research team questions how individuals and communities living on the edges of Europe - especially in port cities and transport hubs - experience trade, migration and sovereignty in their day-to-day lives. Drawing on interdisciplinary methodologies, the aim is to demonstrate how borders and borderlands represent complex ecosystems, acting both as barriers and crossing-points, points of contact and conflict, and places of exchange and enforcement. The research team hopes to shed new light on Europe's past and use it to shape a response to the challenges the world faces today.

Principal Investigator: Dr Edmond Smith, University of Manchester