Beyond the border: exploring cross-scalar socio-spatial dynamics of conflict, resistance and encounter at the Ceuta-Morocco borderscapes

Along and across the border between the Spanish enclave of Ceuta and Morocco, cooperative and conflictual interactions, and a local amendment to the European Union external borders regime, have produced a multiplicity of everyday 'atypical' trade dynamics. These, in turn, have shaped the socio-spatial configurations of the enclave and, far beyond, of the neighbouring Tanger-Tetouan Region. Adopting the notion of borderscapes as its main conceptual perspective, combined with research undertaken in Morocco, this article suggests that existing relational spaces and (informal) interactions can be catalysts for new perspectives of socio-spatial integration along and across the border, within the 'cracks' of current border regimes.