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Since 2010, new research in the border territories between Greece, Albania and the Republic of Macedonia has prompted Pierre Sintès to think further about new forms of territoriality, particularly linked to the increasing promotion of cultural heritage. Through examination of what these processes involve in terms of the appropriation of space, this new work builds on earlier thoughts on the relations between social communities and places, now covering more directly communities’ usage and perceptions of the past. The chapter also treats Thesprotia as a case study to demonstrate the different trends which, today, characterise these rural Greek peripheral spaces, but which are also emblematic of wider dynamics.

This chapter begins the book’s exploration of Alsace-Lorraine’s cartographic archive with a discussion of scientific survey maps. Scientific mapmaking constituted an important first step in the visualization of modern European boundaries. In order to draw and demarcate their territorial borders, European states created new mapping institutions that trained professional corps of surveyors in the use of scientific instruments and triangulation techniques. Modern French and German governments both desired maps of Alsace-Lorraine that were mathematically precise, ordered, and void of any references to local cultural particularities. As a result, French and German surveyors—though they worked for rival states—produced nearly identical maps of Alsace-Lorraine and collaborated closely on joint border commissions. The French and German states’ gridded, homogenous maps of their disputed border territory were so similar, in fact, that they became objects of frequent transnational exchange, particularly in times of war.

Cultural capital develops within particular institutional environments. This chapter shows that a historical approach gives a more-nuanced and less-politically charged view of the colonial experiences and the hardening and softening of the territory's borders. It argues that institutional integrity, a proudly flaunted Hong Kong feature, developed from a society and polity that enjoyed an unusual degree of autonomy as a colony. The economic history of Hong Kong should recognize not a government-led economy but a government responsive to business demands to generate entrepreneurial positioning. Examples include the import–export business in the nineteenth century, the industries from the 1920s, the power of the Hong Kong dollar from the end of the nineteenth century to the 1990s, the physical infrastructure of ports and roads, and the legal infrastructure tied to the operation of company legislation. These processes have attracted competitive human talents.