The main idea of the conference concerns social relations on various ethnic and national borderlands. Borderlands are areas affected by specific transformations and mirror global social, economic and political processes in the local dimension.

Borderlands are not only specific places, but are also constituted of relationships among different communities that meet each other constantly or only temporarily. Borderlands are spaces of dialogue, but also of conflict. They are also the past, history, and everything that influences the present in a way that is invisible to the naked eye today.

In 2019, an international conference “Identity and Identity Needs Among Culturally Diverse Communities of the Eastern EU Borderland” was held at the University of Bialystok. It was organized by the Institute of Sociology in cooperation with Vilnius Gediminas Technical University and the Lithuanian Culture Research Institute.

The conference planned for 2021 is the result of cooperation initiated at that time. It will serve to strengthen and expand that cooperation by creating a permanent platform for communication and integration of researchers who study border issues (sociologists, anthropologists, social geographers, political scientists, philosophers, cultural studies researchers, etc.).

The practical goal of the conference is also to disseminate and develop research methodologies that are of particular importance in qualitative and quantitative research carried out in the borderlands. “A debate on good practices related to research and work in the borderlands will be an integral part of the conference. The debate will be conducted in cooperation with the “Borderland of Arts, Cultures and Nations” Centre.