Zum Modell des transnationalen sozialen Raums im Kontext von Grenzregionen. Theoretisch-konzeptionelle Überlegungen am Beispiel des Grenzgängerwesens

Given the continuing processes of globalisation, social networks that can be categorised as being above the national level are coming to the fore. They are also making constant headway as research topics in the human and social sciences by calling analytical concepts into question that are still geared towards “rooted” life conditions. For instance, there is a move away from statistical, homogenising and closed models of society, culture and space to more open and dynamic concepts that can provide important motivation for questions and their way they theoretically approach these issues on the small-space level of neighbouring border regions. This article will address the model of a transnational social space and discuss it in the framework of cross-border social interconnections between European border regions. It will start off by explaining the types of mobility that transmigrants and cross-border commuters have and then empirically and exemplarily linking this to a study made on cross-border commuters in the large-scale SaarLorLux region. The model to be presented here has been developed in the context of migration research and it focuses on permanent social connections that go beyond national states and constitute new connections of socialisation, even though its conception and analytical methods mostly remain dedicated to static thinking and to the national state. Given these facts, this article attempts to outline the central desiderata and potential development vistas for the research on transnational social relationships in border regions.