Multilayered regionalization in Northern Europe

Abstract

The broadening and deepening of Europe as a macro-region impels processes of expansion, contraction and transformation in sub-regions positioned within the EU and across the EU’s border. Recent arguments stress the idea of regionalization as a multi-layered process. Using Northern Europe as a study site, three such layers are explored: territorially bounded regionalization in the voting patterns of the Eurovision Song Contest, networked regionalization in the membership of intergovernmental organizations, and fluid regionalization in the geography of language. The associated regionalization processes are explained and visualized using mixed methodologies. Across these three layers of regionalization we can see the persistence of a Scandinavian core, but various territorial, networked and fluid forms of regionalization are stretching and pulling at the edges of Nordic regionalizations.