On all levels and in very different contexts, administrative borderlands are often centres of functional specialisation as well as derogatory and potentially innovative initiatives or practices. Beyond the handicap of discontinuity created by administrative boundaries, institutional agreements take place officially to a greater or lesser extent, in order to manage an uncertain and complex situation. Observing these processes in contexts as different as those of Togo, France, Niger, Morocco and South Africa enables us to bring out certain geopolitical patterns indicating relations between centres and peripheries, and between various levels of territorial administration (e.g. municipalities, regions and central states). Perhaps, for that matter, the much sought-after new formulae of territorial governance are developed on these borderlands.