W artykule zawarto próbę analizy problematyki pogranicza - zwłaszcza narodowego
- uwzględniając jego aspekt geograficzny, historyczny, polityczny, etniczny, społeczny
i kulturowy. Z uwagi na bardzo szeroki i wieloznaczny zakres tematyki pogranicza,
ograniczono się przede wszystkim do analizy w ujęciu geograficzno-socjologicznym.
Głównym celem było ukazanie różnorodności obszarów pograniczy - jej przyczyn i konsekwencji.
Borderlands have always been a subject of various disciplines such as anthropology,
archaeology, ethnology, ethnography, geography, history, law, and sociology. Therefore, an
appropriate examination of this matter requires a large interdisciplinary approach. The term
of borderland has many meanings according to its context: geographical, historical, political,
ethnic, social or cultural. This study is mainly concerned with the geographical and sociological
aspects of the issue.
As borderland was traditionally defined as a territory or border area, one of its basic
features is spatial dimension In some cases, borderland is delimited precisely - by rivers,
mountains or other elements of the natural environment. Most often the range of borderland
is determined in terms of settlement geography: migrations, settlements, inhabitants culture.
Borderland is a transition zone between two, or more, states or nations. This situation is
owing to multiple historical changes of political dependence of the region, mixture of people
in the settlement process, and different political influencés.
A special type of borderland is a frontier. This term, rendered into Polish language as
kresy, do not have an explicit, unequivocal meaning either in Polish political life or in
literature. It comprises not only spatial and geographical aspects but also cultural and mythical
ones. Usually, the frontier is identified in Polish literature with south-eastern extremities of
pre-partition or pre-war Poland while western confines of the country are called borderland.
However, the term frontier can be used in relation to very many border areas in all continents
which played a similar role in the history of different states as kresy in Poland. Frontier is
a specific borderland where a politically and ethnically accomplished state border on less
developed, in this respect, peoples. It was the case of practically all borderlands at the fringes
of main centres of civilization.
In political geography the notion of the frontier is explained with core and periphery
theories. The core area is a territory of strong political, economic, ethnic, and cultural
dominance which was a springboard for expansion toward neighbouring areas. Usually, the
expansion covered at first ethnically related territories and then it spread over periphery of
different ethnic background. Despite the etymological meaning of the Polish word kresy
(literally: ends, extremities), frontier does not convey the idea of territorial expansion limits.
To the contrary, frontier comprehends expansiveness because, as an area without strict
confines, it is an undefined border zone which should be maximally enlarged. It corresponds
with an American interpretation of the term frontier: that part of a settled, civilized country
which lies next to an unexplored or undeveloped region Borderlands are liable to unite or
bring closer together some regions and countries; frontiers, on the contrary, generally separate
and seclude them. The geographic core and periphery theory shows some resemblances with
a sociological conception of centre - periphery relation which considers borderland as
a dependent area remote from a centre.