Cross-border living areas as popularisation of cross-border integration? Debating ‘Bacino di vita’ and ‘Bassin de vie’

The notion of cross-border living areas (‘Bassins de vie’/’Bacini di vita’) is part of the reflection on how the European integration process affects border regions. A transdisciplinary conference, held in Rome in April 2024, discussed this concept for the border region between Italy and France. Based on a number of impressions collected during the conference, the paper debates if and to what extent this concept can offer a contribution to addressing cross-border integration in the European framework. We claim that, despite the continuity of arguments on cross-border delimitations and cross-border governance, the concept of cross-border living area has the potential to popularise the debate on border related issues, in particular by bridging gaps between the policy world and the academic sphere.