Cultural borders of Europe : narratives concepts and practices in the present and the past The cultural borders of Europe are today more visible than ever and with them comes a sense of uncertainty with respect to liberal democratic traditions: whether treated as abstractions or concrete realities cultural divisions challenge concepts of legitimacy and political representation as well as the legal bases for citizenship. Thus an understanding of such borders and their consequences is of utmost importance for promoting the evolution of democracy. Cultural Borders of Europe provides a wide ranging exploration of these lines of demarcation in a variety of regions and historical eras providing essential insights into the state of European intercultural relations today Provided by publisher Introduction Mats Andrén & Ingmar Söhrman Part I. The challenges of religious borders Territorial and religious identifications in Europe Linda Berg Europe with or without Muslims : creating and maintaining cultural boundaries Göran Larsson & Riem Spielhaus Ilm al Hududuyya : un inheriting Eurocentricity Klas Grinell Part II. Linguistic borders in practice When the intercultural goes national : text books as sites of struggle Katharina Vajta The pluricentric borders of Bavaria Barbara Loester The influence of imagined linguistic performances Ingmar Söhrman Part III. Mental spaces and barriers Mental barriers replacing nation state borders Fernand Fehlen Crossing borders and redefining oneself : the treacherous life of Aino Kallas Katarina Leppänen Evolving symbolic divides : in Basque language promotion logos Johan Järlehed Part IV. Scholars making borders The controversial concept of European identity Mats Andrén The EU as a large space  : Carl Schmitt and the contemporary dilemmas of political rituals and cultural borders Jon Wittrock How prehistory becomes crucial for border making Per Cornell Conclusion Thomas Lindkvist & Katharina Vajta