Coordination has historically been associated to the concept of integration. In the emergent perspective, this association leads to the definition of different integrative conditions of coordination (Okhuysen & Bechky 2009). Consequently through integration, actors emphasize their commonalities and similarities, fostering a sense of belonging or cohesion that is conducive to the successful achievement of the coordination conditions. However, the fulfillment of the conditions of predictability, common understanding, and accountability seem difficult to achieve in contexts that are more conducive to fragmentation than integration (Wolbers et al. 2018). The analysis of two cross-border regions in which borders generate multiple differences opens up the debate between integration and fragmentation and question more broadly the ways in which coordination conditions can be achieved. From a practical perspective, our results show that integration is far from being the favored way for actors in cross-border regions to coordinate; their actions converging more towards change-over or fragmentation dynamics. Far from being detrimental to the coordination process, our results show that change-over and fragmentation can also serve the achievement of coordination conditions through the realization of a multitude of actions and complementary interfaces.
