Webinar: International Seminar: Identity and Functionality in Boundary Demarcation at Local Level: Comparative Perspectives [30 November 2022]

Efficiency and identity arguments often appear as key justifications undergirding local boundaries. On the one hand, municipal boundaries set the territorial limits for the provision of local public services. For those that see municipalities as the location of service provision, the making of boundaries should be dictated by functional linkages, including financial and administrative capacity considerations. Yet, local boundaries and the community coming together within them typically also provide immaterial goods such as social cohesion, belonging and identity. Local institutions may play an important role in this regard not only as location of service provision but also a center of social life. Drawing from the experience of countries in Europe, Africa and Canada, the panel discusses the place of efficiency and identity related considerations in the making and remaking of local boundaries.

Speakers:

• Dr Karl Kössler, senior researcher, Institute of Comparative Federalism, EURAC Research, Bolzano, Italy
• Prof Yonatan Fessha, Research Chair in Constitutional Design for Divided Societies, Faculty of Law, UWC
• Prof Johanne Poirier, The Peter MacKell Chair in Federalism, Faculty of Law, McGill University, Montreal, Canada  

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