Prilog promišljanju oblikovanja hrvatskih granica u povijesnoj i suvremenoj perspektivi

The authors deal with selected aspects of past and present border shaping processes in Croatia, regarding its sociological and historical perspective. Some circumstances under which the boundaries between countries are established, maintained and changed are discussed. As socially constructed phenomena, the boundaries change their meaning over time, aiming to exclude the Others and/or Strangers and to determine the belonging. They are under ambivalent pressure of limitations, divisions, conflicts and exclusions on ethnic or national level on one hand and under impact of the enlarging processes, inclusions and political interests on local, regional, national and supranational levels, on the other hand. Such a comparative interdisciplinary approach reveals liminal character and importance of Croatian borders which, positioned at almost same places as today, were in the Early Modern Period perceived as the civilization edge (e.g. Antemurale Christianitatis) and confessional barrier towards the Other. The analisys showed that the role of Croatian borders is apparently, among the others, to strengthen the defence of the Fortress Europe (Schengen area) from the irregular migrants and migrants as the Others. On selected cases the paper examined how do political elites manage to shape the borders and make it (non) permeable for the movement of goods, services and people, depending on their interests. While the certain policies were imposed from above, everyday practices of local population were usually opposed and still happen to oppose proclaimed limitation, turning the boundary from the barrier to the place of exchange and cooperation. Simultaneously, the fragmentation of European space and strengthening of national interests leads to stronger “Europe of borders” instead of the proclaimed ideal of “Europe without borders”.