Research program
Program promoter: dr. Milan Bufon, Science and Research Centre of Koper (University of Primorska)
Program performer: Science and Research Centre of Koper (University of Primorska), Slori-Slovene Research Institute
Program implementation period: 2004-2008
The research program is focused on the area of contact of major European cultural and language domains; i.e., the Romance, Slavonic and Germanic domains, that only interact and coexist in Slovenia. Based on the example of Slovenia and its contact areas, a new integration model is being developed, examining comparative development possibilities for horizontal and vertical integration processes in the future united Europe. Within a wider, political-geographical, framework, the research program concentrates on the typology of border areas, the degree of the functional and socio-cultural integration of the border population, forms of institutionalised cross-border integration, and the degree of harmony between social and spatial planning in the case of upper Mediterranean areas – from the three-border area of Austria, Italy and Slovenia, to the Istrian three-border area of Slovenia, Italy and Croatia.