1. Cross-Border Cooperation in the Periphery of the European Union: Reinterpreting the Finnish-Russian Borderland.
- Author
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Scott, James Wesley
- Subjects
- *
BORDER security , *NATIONAL security , *GEOGRAPHIC boundaries , *TERRITORIAL jurisdiction , *INTERNATIONAL cooperation , *INTERNATIONAL relations - Abstract
The profound socio-spatial transformations that have occurred in Post Cold-War Europe are becoming visible in border regions in terms of the influence of civil society cooperation, intermarriage, business networks, the increasing mobility of labour, local cross-border trade and tourism, etc. These processes suggest an acceleration of rapidly re-territorializing (e.g. 'post-national') dynamics in Europe. The Finnish-Russian case of 'Karelia' highlights the complexity of re-territorialisation in 'emerging' European Borderlands. Karelia is, on the one hand, a regional idea - part of an attempt to selectively use history, geographical representations and discourses of regional integration in order to create a sense of common purpose. This paper will present evidence of regionalisation processes taking shape in 'Finnish-Russian' Karelia based on the construction of 'familiarity' This region-building strategy harks back to the well-known Euroregion model developed within the context of European integration. However, if Euroregions can be seen as largely public sector projects of 'place-making' the construction of familiarity is a much more socially grounded process. In concluding I will speculate to what extent this European Borderland can be seen as a laboratory of post-national identity-formation and development practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2010