The symbolic role of an invisible border in the Genevan borderscape

More than thirty years have passed since Claude Raffestin expressed the problem
posed by changes in the symbolic significance of national borders, particularly
in the context of cross-border regionalization. Since then, several studies have
shown that the functional devaluation and the dematerialization of borders that
have affected some regions in the world—and in particular the internal borders
of the European Union—are accompanied by a change of roles and meanings:
from barriers and hindrances, more porous borders have appeared as areas of
opportunity that could be mobilized as resources for the economic, political or
cultural development of border regions (...)