Euregio Karelia, Multiple Political-Territorial Levels, Multiple Territorial logics : A comparative analysis of the territorial logics of the overlapping political-territorial levels in Euregio Karelia and their effect on the development of Euregio Karelia
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2010-08
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en
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Abstract
In this research the territorial logics of the different border producing actors involved in
cooperation across the EU-Finnish-Russian border, from the supranational to the subnational,
are analysed. At the basis of this research is the reterritorialization of European space. The
traditional sovereignty based nation-state model is challenged from above by the formation
of the EU, and from below through the formation of Euregio’s.
Initially the EU predominantly focused on the internal situation. Now, the EU increasingly
becomes a geopolitical power with its own foreign policies and cooperation policies,
challenging the nation-state from above. Previously, the nation-state had a monopoly on
foreign policy and cooperation with the 'other' side. Through the formation of Euregio's, the
subnational level becomes involved in cooperation with the 'foreign'. The subnational level
has its own foreign policies, challenging the territorial logic of the nation-state from below.
The border between Finland and Russia became with Finland’s accession to the EU also the
external border of the EU. On this EU-Finnish-Russian border Euregio Karelia was developed
in 2000. This has created a complex multi-level (border) governance structures with different
territorial levels of political action, or political-territorial levels, involved in cooperation across
the border, hence involved in border production. These different political-territorial levels and
their policies have a territorial underpinning, a territorial logic. With different ideas about the
permeability of the border, creating different insides and outsides in different spheres of
social action.
The Euregio Karelia forms a territory where different political-territorial levels meet and
overlap. It formed a prism for this research to see how the territorial logics of the EU,
Finland, Russia, the Finnish regions and the Republic of Karelia relate and affect the
development of Euregio Karelia into an integrated cross-border region. The analysis of the
territorial logics is structured around the five dimensions of the territorial logic: the
economic, the cultural, the political-territorial, the governance and legal dimension.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen