Creating New Spaces for Politics? The Role of National Minorities in Building Capacity of Cross-border Regions

The creation of ‘regional’ spaces for politics across national borders, and the role of national minorities in border regions therein, remain under-explored in regional studies. Based on an ontology that de-links ‘regions as spaces for politics’ from formal boundaries and embraces territorial hybridity and de-territorialization of politics, this article explores how regional and minority actors in the Danish–German border region collectively mobilized to build cross-border capacity. In this process, national minorities emerged as key actors constructing anew an ‘old’ border region through politicization of regional territory; re-framing ideologies of EU polity building; mobilization of intra-regional networks; usage of intra-state territorial politics.