Les effets de l’évolution des maillages communaux dans une région transfrontalière germano-tchèque

In studying the “Dreiländereck”, a cross-border region spanning parts of the Czech Republic, Saxony and Bavaria, the author emphasizes how specific political and administrative networks observed on both sides of the border reveal the socio-spatial systems thus brought into contact. Such an approach toward regionalisation in a cross-border space demonstrates the various ways of organising and managing space, the different ways of identifying with a territory, and the variety of relationships that exist at a local level between society and politics. Beyond the practical spatial distortions engendered by the border in this region, more theoretical issues emerge, such as the difference of networks for the administration of urban and rural spaces. While in the Czech Republic the configuration of communal networks still enables one to roughly differentiate the urban from the rural, such a distinction is virtually impossible on the German side of the border, given that the states of Saxony and Bavaria can even grant urban communities subsidies for rural renewal.