Social microstructures that existed between communities along both sides of the frontiers have been destroyed. The revolutions of 1989 changed the nature of frontiers in Central Europe. The Austrian and Hungarian foreign ministers, Alois Mock and Gyula Horn, dismantling part of the Iron Curtain on the Austrian-Hungarian border in May, 1989. The opportunity to re-establish social networks across frontiers in a region between the Alps, the Danube and the Carpathians is unprecedented, and the extent to which the inhabitants of border regions seize it will ultimately determine the dynamics of these border regions in the future. The literary coffee house, Austrian emigration and old and new frontiers in Central Europe at the end of our century are three of eight-seven projects in a programme that was conceived to take a new look at Austria.
Transdisciplinary research is necessary.
As a result of the types of bilateral, multilateral, European and international co-operation it has promoted, 'Austria without Frontiers' will undoubtedly play a role in helping shape Austria's future.