Abstract
This chapter examines the bordering realities of communities along the Italian-Austrian border. These realities are imbedded in a dynamic global environment entangled by multiple crises, particularly impacting border regions, which are often located between divergent national and regional regulations and marginalized within the national political agenda. Due to this particularity, border regions have emerged as laboratories of resilience and innovation. The research presented here, draws on preliminary findings from a case study of the cross-border regime between Innichen/San Candido (IT) and Sillian (AT). This study is part of a research project, which also explores similar communities at the Italian-French and Italian-Slovenian borders. In the tradition of the “borderscapes” concept, these regions are seen as a complex of intertwined spaces, relationships and practices rather than “peripheries” to be developed according to the national center. They are therefore also spaces, where power is transformed from the linear idea of development to a more localized and connected form of fruitful coexistence. The final results will be compiled by systematically comparing the three cases in order to develop a deeper understanding of the complex intertwining of bordering processes and explore pathways of territorial resilience among cross-border territories in times of polycrises.