Crossing borders via mental bridges

The paper is about a esearch project analysing cross-border regional integration in Europe and draws on the example of the emerging Danish-German Femern Belt Region. It focuses on cross-border networking within public administration as part of regional integration. The central question is how national-cultural differences influence cooperation, coordination and collaboration in administrative cross-border networks. In this connection the project asks after the perception of regional integration seen from the different national backgrounds. The research concentrates on the group of decision makers within the field of public administration, and in specific on their attempt to initiate and promote cross-border regional integration via the building of Mental Bridges between Danish and German parts of the Femern Belt Region. One of the first projects aiming primarily at building Mental Bridges in the Femern Belt Region is the project Kulturbro (Cultural Bridge).