With the deepening of European integration, Western Europe has witnessed the emergence of highly interconnected cross-border living areas. So far, these areas have received rather limited attention from both quantitative research and public policy. The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically exposed the limitations of the status quo: with travel restrictions imposed at administrative borders and limited cross-border crisis management, the daily life of people in border regions was affected in a disproportionate way. In an effort to better understand the geography of cross-border communities, this paper presents the first large-scale quantitative analysis of cross-border communities in Western Europe. We apply the Louvain community detection algorithm to a transnational, fine-grained dataset gathering commuter flows across 10 Western European countries. This allows us to produce the first comprehensive transnational mapping of communities in these countries and identify five main cross-border living areas. Based on these findings, we put forward policy recommendations aimed at improving the design of mobility censuses and developing new institutional frameworks in cross-border regions.


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    Title :

    Where the Borders Lie: Mapping Cross-Border Communities in 10 Western European Countries


    Additional title:

    Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    2024-08-08




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



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