This open access book offers a unique exploration into the lived realities of people residing near the borders of Slovakia, providing a crucial 'borders from below' perspective on how these lines are perceived, experienced, and actively reshaped. This is the first attempt to cover both an EU-internal border (Czech-Slovak) and an external Schengen border (Slovak-Ukrainian), offering unparalleled insight into border transformations during times of profound crisis. Drawing on extensive anthropological and oral historical research, the authors challenges traditional state-centric views by demonstrating how local border communities negotiate and utilize borders for their own benefit, needs, and aspirations. Moving beyond the concept of borders as mere lines on a map, the book delves into how geopolitical and global events – such as the Covid-19 crisis, refugee crises, dissolution of Czechoslovakia, and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine – profoundly reshape border experiences. Through vivid border narratives the book uncovers how local knowledge, collective memory, and economic ingenuity lead to varied forms of border appropriation. It compellingly argues that remembering processes are central to how citizens produce borders in everyday life, fostering local resilience and challenging peripherality. This work humanizes border analysis and offers a critical lens on bordering processes, identity formation, and alternative spatial imaginaries in today’s interconnected world.

Jana Nosková, PhD, is a senior researcher at the Department of Memory Studies, Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences, and head of this Department. 

Sandra Kreisslová, PhD, is a researcher at the Department of Memory Studies, Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences, and an assistant professor at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University. 

Michal Pavlásek, PhD, is a researcher at the Department of Memory Studies, Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences. 

Katarína Popelková, PhD, is a senior researcher at the Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences, and at the Institute of Ethnology and Social Anthropology, Slovak Academy of Sciences.

Nataliia Zaitseva-Chipak is a researcher at the Department of Memory Studies, Institute of Ethnology, Czech Academy of Sciences, and a lecturer in sociology at the Ukrainian Catholic University, Lviv.