Multimodal discourse analysis of cross-border cooperation visuals throughout the history of the Greater Region and the Upper Rhine

In a context marked by the resurgence of national borders in the political agendas of European states, the way in which cross-border regions present themselves and the meaning their stakeholders give to national borders represent a timely scientific question and a key issue for the future of border regions and their communities. Against this background, this PhD research proposal focuses on the multimodal analysis of discourses related to the political construction of cross-border regions in Europe from their emergence in the 1970s to the present day. Until now, most studies dealing with the historical
evolution of cross-border cooperation have focused on written texts, neglecting images, symbols and more broadly the iconography which nevertheless also fully participate in the discursive construction of these spatial entities in the making.
With the aim of filling this gap in research, this PhD proposal aims at taking into consideration the images mobilized by the stakeholders of the Greater Region and the Upper Rhine in their written documentation and communication in order to allow for a historical comparative analysis of their narratives. The underlying assumption is that visual representations such as photographs, maps, diagrams or logos fully participate in the construction of narratives that accompany the formation of cross-border regions and their social and political legitimization and therefore need to be taken into consideration together with textual analyses in the study of their contemporary history. Moreover, such a multimodal discourse analysis would also allow to better take into consideration the materiality of borders in the elaboration of the actors' discourses.