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GLOBAL-LOCAL INTERPLAY IN THE BALTIC SEA REGION Pärnu, Estonia, October 1-4, 1998  Prof. Anssi Paasi
in the contemporary world Abstract This paper discusses the changing meanings spatial identities, territoriality and state boundaries in a situation, where the processes of globalization are said to increase all kinds of economic, political and cultural links and to diminish the role of boundaries and state sovereignty. On the other hand, nationalism and ethno-regionalism seem to establish simultaneously new boundaries, to challenge identities and to give rise to conflicts between social and cultural groups. Instead of understanding boundaries merely as fixed products of the modernist project this paper aims at conceptualizing them as social processes and discourses. This means that instead of analyzing how boundaries distinguish social entities, an analysis is needed of how social action and discourse produce different, perpetually changing meanings for boundaries and how these are then used as instruments or mediums of distinction and, therefore, as the basis of socio-spatial identities. The changing meanings of the Finnish-Russian border are evaluated as empirical illustrations for this approach. The analysis of the traditional and contemporary meanings of this border suggests that the instead of understanding the idea of territoriality as one specific form of control used in strictly bounded territorial units, actually several forms of territoriality exist side-by-side in diverging social practices and discourses. Some forms of territoriality put stress on identities and sovereignty, while others do not. |