Something old, new, borrowed, and blue: towards a bottom-up agenda of the Finnish-Russian relations (original) (raw)

Opportunities and Challenges of Non-State Dialogue across the Finnish-Russian Border

Increased inclusion of non-state actors in world politics has brought up the need for a wider understanding of power and agency. In a new Europe of post-national borders, the state sovereignty and authority has been weakened not just upwards and downwards, but also sideways by social movements and civil society organizations. The re-scaling of state, multileveled governance, and the cross-border initiatives fuelled by them, have initiated a transition from international to transnational relations. Reflecting this shift from debordering to rebordering, the role of borderlands has changed from integrators to buffer zones. More attention needs to be paid on those actors and processes that respond to globalizing forces by propelling border-spanning activities and foster cross-border relations. Building on empirical material collected from the Finnish-Russian border, this paper argues that cross-border civil society has the potential to address bi-/transnational problems and push governments toward binational solutions.

New Civic Neighborhood: Cross-border Cooperation and Civil Society Engagement at the Finnish-Russian Border

This study examines the actual and potential role of Finnish civil society organizations in developing new forms of cross-border cooperation with Russia. It puts forth the concept of civic neighborhood as a bottom-up alternative to the official notion of ‘EUropean’ Neighborhood. As the period to be analyzed begins with the collapse of the Soviet Union, it covers the era during which Finnish-Russian bilateral relations became a part of broader EU-Russia relations. The formation of civic neighborhood is studied on the basis of two major empirical primary datasets, of which one consists of interviews and another one of published newspaper materials. The two datasets provide different, yet mutually complementary perspectives on the phenomenon under study. It is vital to study both perspectives as perceptions, since images of the other and discursive relations are not mere results of cooperation practices but also – and more importantly – their prerequisites. The optimal way to normalize neighborly relations is to increase people-to-people interaction, and preferably this ought to occur from the bottom up rather than the top down. While state institutions and structures may contribute to the shaping of the general operational environment, the maintenance of civil society cooperation cannot be expected to rest entirely on the state. In light of the current trends that reduce the funds allotted for cross-border cooperation on the one hand, and the decentralization and privatization of public services on the other hand, it would be fruitful to conceptualize a cross-border space for social contracting and entrepreneurship through civil society organizations. This would allow the civil society organizations to gain further leverage to fill in the gaps created by borders and bordering, and to bridge the apparent intersectoral crevasses

When Intentions Meet Realities: Typology of Contacts across the Finnish-Russian Border

2001

When Intentions Meet Realities: Typology of Contacts across the Finnish-Russian Border Heikki Eskelinen, University of Joensuu, Finland Dmitri Zimine, St. Petersburg Centre for Russian Studies, Russia Cross-border cooperation can be defined as conscious joint activity pursued by local and regional governments with more or less strong support from civil society, and facilitated and constrained by central governments and international organisations. Since about 1990, this phenomenon has also been witnessed across the former Iron Curtain, simultaneously with various forms of cross-border economic transactions and informal contacts. Yet in most cases, cross-border regionalisation has remained rather weak, and it has not met the early ambitious targets of creating a new borderless Europe. Given the background outlined above, the present paper attempts to clarify the interplay of official cooperation and informal cross-border contacts: whether they have developed in accordance - or at lea...

Incommodious border? Rethinking the function of the Finnish-Russian border

Fennia-International Journal of Geography, 2007

. Incommodious border? Rethinking the function of the Finnish-Russian border. Fennia 185: 1, pp. 49-62. Helsinki. ISSN 0015-0010. This article examines the manner in which the often-mentioned barrier effect of the Finnish-Russian border as well as the greater interaction, enabled by the gradual opening of the border, is perceived among actors involved in crossborder co-operation or border management. The discussion surrounding the impacts of borders on the areas they divide provides the analytical basis on which this article is built. It is a composition of several proposals, which taken together suggest that, first and foremost, borders are barriers for interaction, which have several different roles, some of which are more resistant to change. The empirical data consists of 81 questionnaires, originally collected for the EXLINEA research project from North and South Karelia, in Finland and in the Republic of Karelia and the Leningrad Oblast in Russia. The basic assertion of this article is that despite the benefits gained from its partial opening, the Finnish-Russian border and its side-effects still function as a barrier, separating the two sides from each other and hindering interaction. Given the role that the border plays this is not, however, a purely negative thing. A majority on both sides perceives the border as a necessary and useful institution that is sufficiently transparent to enable the two neighbours to interact in a mutually beneficial manner.

Borderwork: Finnish-Russian co-operation and civil society engagement in the social economy of transformation

Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 2012

This paper presents results from research projects that have investigated networks of civil society organizations (CSOs) between EU member states and neighbouring countries. The focus here is on Finnish-Russian civil society co-operation in the areas of social welfare provision as well as regional and economic development. One major objective in this conjunction is to assess the contribution of this cross-border co-operation to the development of Russia's social economy as well as to discuss the various obstacles that civil society actors face in developing co-operative projects. As such, organizational, social and technical issues are important areas to be addressed. However, civil society co-operation is not a mere technical issue; understanding of the social embeddedness of civil society are also necessary in order to promote social welfare agendas. The concluding section will reflect on experiences of CSO co-operation with regard to capacity-building processes of social learning and future prospects for social enterprise.

Shifting concepts of the Finnish-Russian border in the post-Cold War period

Visions of deepening globalisation, new postmodern, or even post-national global order have labelled interpretations of post- Cold War political history in contemporary Europe. Lately they have been counterbalanced by discussions of re-securitization and walling of borders and the rise of nationalism. Evidently, borders have become crucial concepts, both as reflections and as objects of political transformation. This paper asks how fundamental this conceptual change has actually been during the last 25 years. What kind of conceptual shifts can be detected in Finnish political discussion from 1990 to 2014? This paper reflects on these questions in the context of debates concerning Finnish-Russian border in the main newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. The paper illustrates the contested nature of the concept of border and aims to answer questions how, by whom and why the concept of ‘border’ has been used in Finnish political language. The paper focuses on few key discussion during the major waves of discussion that are characterized by politicization of the concept of border. Through conceptual analysis, this paper identifies how the Finnish-Russian border has been politicized and used in post-Cold War debate. The paper shows how powerful political tools concepts are, and how contested conceptualisations of border have been used for pushing forward political agendas, and/or challenging predominant discourses.

Discourses of de-and re-bordering, territorial perceptions and actor relations within the Finnish- Russian ENI cooperation network

Discourses of de-and re-bordering, territorial perceptions and actor relations within the Finnish- Russian ENI cooperation network, 2018

The study of borders has confronted us with a variety of new challenges. The current global political environment is characterised by re-bordering dynamics that remind us of the modern form of state territorial sovereignty. The EU attempts to confront conflicts and political challenges in its neighbourhood by establishing a cross-border strategy based on integrated border management and cross-border cooperation activities at its external borders. By re-visiting the role of territory in the EU’s cross-border cooperation network, Katharina examines how the cooperation actor’s perception of ‘stable’ borders securitises cross-border cooperation. The study concludes that sub-national actors have developed strategies to address and overcome the territorialities of EU funded Finnish-Russian cross-border cooperation by building trustful relations that are crucial in the current diplomatic climate between the EU and Russia.