Anssi Paasi Research Articles

Discursive-technical landscaping and policing the body (politic) in Azerbaijan: a case study of Talysh activists

ABSTRACT In Azerbaijan, there exists a common practice of ‘policing the body’ to better police the discursive-technical landscape. Activists in Azerbaijan are frequently forcibly and opaquely detained, incarcerated, surveilled within public as well as private spaces, and are commonly made to suffer bodily harm whilst in custody. Policing the individual body in this way allows for officials in Azerbaijan to better control the narratives offered up for public consumption both within and outside of the country’s political borders. Policing the individual body, then, effectively allows for the policing and/or sanitising of the territorialized body politic and its symbolic representations ‘at home’ and ‘abroad’. Inspired by Anssi Paasi and Michel Foucault, the author develops and examines the utility of the concept of ‘discursive-technical landscaping’, using the lesser-known, lesser-studied case of the policing of Talysh minority activists’ bodies in Azerbaijan as an illustrative example. Discussion of the bodily policing of Talysh activists helps to illustrate the far-reaching, multi-scalar, power-laden, and elite-driven nature of discursive-technical landscapes across space and time.

Taking territory seriously in a fluid, topologically varied world: reflections in the wake of the populist turn and the COVID-19 pandemic

This article is published as part of the Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography special issue based on the Vega symposium: ‘Bounded spaces in question: X-raying the persistence of regions and territories, edited by Anssi Paasi. ABSTRACT A concern with territory may seem anachronistic in the face of the interconnected, fluid, topologically complex political-geographic landscape of the twenty-first century. Yet in many places borders are hardening, the movement of people is becoming more limited, and state nationalism is gaining ground. The recent rise of populist-nationalist movements and the responses to the spread of SARS-CoV-2 around the world are illustrative of conflicting political and social dynamics that are simultaneously reinforcing and challenging dominant territorial ideas and assumptions. Coming to grips with this state of affairs demands an increasingly sophisticated engagement with the concept of territory–one that treats territory as a shifting, yet sticky, element of a complex system that is constantly being remade through the interplay of material circumstances and ideological dispositions.

For a ‘new new regional geography’: plastic regions and more-than-relational regionality

This article is published as part of the Geographical Annaler: Series B, Human Geography special issue based on the Vega symposium: ‘Bounded spaces in question: X-raying the persistence of regions and territories, edited by Anssi Paasi. ABSTRACT This paper firstly delimits a ‘new new regional geography’ centered on whether regions can be seen as relational and networked or/and territorial and scalar concerns, and beyond this, what relationality and its various topological twists means. Debates have sought ways forward by seeing regions as assembled temporary permanencies and how regions are formed and then endure despite conditions of continual change. The paper engages specifically with Allen’s (2012) notion of a ‘more than relational geography’, which questions what kind of regional entities are being made and sustained. The paper secondly advances this via notions of ‘plastic space’ to take forward debates on a more than relational geography of regions, where regions are flexible but not totally arbitrary, constrained by contextual realities forged in and through time as the plasticity of institutional combinations. Malabou’s plasticity ontology is deployed to raise important questions on the limits to seeing the regional world through always elastic deformations and the stretching of objects and relations, which can lead to thrown-together topological vagaries.

Border timespaces: understanding the regulation of international mobility and migration

This article is published as part of the Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography special issue based on the Vega symposium: 'Bounded spaces in question: X-raying the persistence of regions, territories and borders, edited by Anssi Paasi. ABSTRACT The distorted shape of many of today’s political borders has been widely noted. An increasingly sprawling body of literature in geography and beyond has explored the growing spatial ambiguity of borders which are now seen as both externalised and networked throughout society. There is some recognition that the spatial reconfiguration of borders to appear in locations that challenge conventional assumptions about the relationship between state, border and territory may involve a temporal dimension; however, the many ways in which time and space work through each other to shape what it means to move in and out of a political community have remained largely overlooked. In order to make sense of the complex temporal and spatial entanglements involved in contemporary bordering processes, I advance an understanding of borders as devices which selectively contract and expand the distance between internal and external spaces and mobilise and immobilise migrants by altering the speed and rhythm of their movements. A focus on dynamic, fragmented and ephemeral border timespaces, in my view, offers a more nuanced account of how the cross-border movements of migrants are currently regulated.

Examining the persistence of bounded spaces: remarks on regions, territories, and the practices of bordering

ABSTRACT Regions and territories become institutionalized as part of wider geohistorical processes and practices in which these spatial entities accomplish their borders, institutions, symbolisms and normally contested identity narratives. The borders of bounded spaces are ever more topical today because of the mobilities of human beings (tourists, migrants, refugees), the rise of (ethno-)nationalism and regionalism, anti-immigration discourses and racism; features that expose the ideological significance of territories and the forms of physical and symbolic violence that are frequently embedded in borders/bordering. This essay explores the tenacity of bounded spaces in academic research and in social practices, and the meanings attached to such spaces. It will analyze how geographers and other social scientists have understood and conceptualized regional and territorial spaces and traces the evolution of the keywords in border studies. Borders are material and ideological constructs, institutions, processes and symbols that are critical in the production and reproduction of regions/territories, identities and ideologies. The article leans on author’s idea of spatial socialization and Shields’ notion of social spatialization in making sense of how the obstinate power of borders is embedded in the production and reproduction of bounded spaces and in the process of subjectification. This article is published as part of the Geographical Annaler: Series B, Human Geography special issue based on the Vega symposium: ‘Bounded spaces in question: X-raying the persistence of regions and territories, edited by Anssi Paasi.

Bounded spaces in question: x-raying the persistence of regions, territories and borders

ABSTRACT This essay introduces the special issue of Geografiska Annaler B, which includes revised and extended articles originally presented at the Vega Symposium in Stockholm in 2021. The symposium entitled Bounded Spaces in Question: X-raying the Persistence of Regions and Territories focused on the continuing importance and challenges of regions, territories and borders, both in geographical thinking and in different social (political, cultural and economic) practices. These keywords and their multiple concepts have become highly important in geographic and interdisciplinary literature since the 1990s. The purpose of this Special Issue is to bring these categories into the same framework and to problematize the changing nature of bounded spaces and related power relations. The articles by Anssi Paasi, Alexander B. Murphy, Martin Jones and Linn Axelsson seek to transcend the ‘self-evident’ meanings of these categories and examine the related theoretical and practical challenges at different spatial scales. The authors examine the changing meanings of these keywords in an increasingly diverse political geographical landscape, characterized by globalization, various forms of mobility, the rise of populism and (right-wing) nationalism, and the simultaneous opening and closing of regional/territorial spaces.

Beyond ‘Borderism’: Overcoming Discriminative B/Ordering and Othering

AbstractNow, 20 years after our article “Bordering, Ordering and Othering”, the editorial team ofTESGhas asked me to look back on its formation, and to comment on the appraisals of its continued relevance and influence offered by Anssi Paasi, Bastian Vollmer, James Scott and Chiara Brambilla in this Forum. To this end, I will first explain what the inspiration was for our essay and will shortly revisit the geopolitical triadic frame that we proposed; then, I will discuss the reflections of the commentators while briefly analyzing how the field of border studies has developed; and lastly, I will look ahead and offer, also using their reflections, a brief research agenda to address present and upcoming b/ordering and othering challenges.

Territorial collective identities and the internet. Processes of individuation of Siena’s neighbourhoods

ABSTRACT This article brings together philosophical anthropologist Hemuth Plessner’s views on identities with geographer Anssi Paasi’s concepts of border and boundary. Plessner viewed personal identity as a kind of ‘void’ able to coordinate internal and external personal relations in such a way that an imagined unity unfolds. This happens through a process of individuation understood as both at once persisting as and becoming that imagined unity. It is shown here that this perspective can be transferred to the collective level by referring to the work of Paasi who demonstrates that the processes of institutionalizing social boundaries and spatial borders are the critical moments in the formation of territorial collective identities. These two concepts are particularly useful for understanding the historical dynamics by which social and spatial orders reproduce and change in relation to social, political and technological alterations. This theoretical discussion is developed here by examining ethnographic and digital data relating to the neighbourhoods of Siena’s historic city centre, the contrade, and the urban festival, the Palio di Siena, in which they constitute the main protagonists. This case shows that the neighbourhoods engage with the internet in order to maintain control over their collective identities vis-a-vis potentially global audiences.

Region as a social construct and the critical discussion of the Paasi’s conceptualization of regional identity

Both the institutionalization of regions theory and the conceptualization of regional identity by Anssi Paasi are highly cited. However, various authors work with Paasi’s classification of regional identity and meanings of its dimensions differently. This is closely related to an insufficient discussion of the existence of region as a social fact. This article discusses social constructionism and the relationship of individual dimensions of regional identity. Crucial to the existence of region are the subjective images of region that can be identified with perceptual regions. Region as a social fact exists only in the knowledge/consciousness of people. In addition to perceptual regions, “objective” regions – homogeneous/formal and functional regions – are part of the identity of region. The identity of region (perceptual regions, specifically) is a condition for the regional consciousness of people which is a mere “superstructure” of region.

Development of Symbolic Shape of the Region and Rejection of the Name Nové Sudety

The planning of a new European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) on the Czech-Polish border generated a debate about the name of the newly emerging body. The Czech side refused to accept the nameSudety[Sudetenland] and later also the nameNové Sudety[New Sudetenland]. The article analyses the attitude of mayors from the border districts of the area in question on the Czech side of the border to the issue of using the nameNové Sudety. The analysis wants to assess the influence of the location of a municipality on the relict Czech-German language boundary from 1930 and of a mayor’s political affiliation on the acceptance of the nameNové Sudetyby a municipality mayor. The mayors’ attitudes were revealed by means of a targeted online poll. The rejection of the name was interpreted in a wider historical-geographical context, taking into account the etymology of the Sudeten geographical name and within the theory of institutionalisation of regions by geographer Anssi Paasi.

Regional environmental governance in Europe: old and new challenges yet to take up

This contribution is based on a set of reflections presented at the REGov Workshop. These reflections were offered as part of a panel discussion around the topic “What is a region?” Additional presentations provided in the context of this panel discussion include those of Anssi Paasi, University of Oulu (this volume), Anthony Lehmann, University of Geneva, and John Allen, Open University (UK). Webcasts of all presentations are available at http://www.reg-observatory.org/outputs.html.

The reproduction of Estonian provinces in the context of transitional administrative reform

The paper examines the reproduction of Estonian provinces within governmental practices when re-establishing the nation-state in the years 1989—2002.The theory of regional institutionalization, introduced by the Finnish geographer Anssi Paasi, is modified as the analytical framework of the study. The qualitative analysis of interview transcripts, legislative acts, official documents and media texts demonstrates the unequal reproduction of provinces on four analytical dimensions — territorial, symbolic, institutional and regional system. The territorial changes and institutional modifications that occurred during the transition period, when the Estonian provinces were symbolically re-established, were less drastic than those that occurred under the Soviet administration but have nevertheless weakened the provinces as an effective layer of government.The study also shows that the postponed administrative reform in 1997—2002 had a dual nature that led to contradictory outcomes. One outcome was that the postponed reform, as a normative representational practice aimed at making substantial changes in the administrative system, had a predominantly negative and de-productive effect on the provincial reality in Estonia. The other outcome was that the postponed reform, as a practice relying on the extant institutional, physical and cultural realities of the provinces, tended to contribute positively to the reproduction of the provinces. However, the analysis reveals that neither tendency was uniform, the variations depending on the character of provinces and institutional actors.

Ad hoc rural regionalism

A new regionalism has been much documented and researched for metropolitan areas; this article documents that there is a new rural regionalism as well. In the United States, these groups appear most likely to emerge in areas that are challenged by outcomes characterizing globalization's effects on the rural condition: namely, exurban or metropolitan sprawl and the resulting landscape fragmentation, often in combination with extreme pressure on the profitability of small farms or other resource uses. This research asks: what impetus is behind rural regional efforts; and what sort of processes of institutionalization do these groups utilize? The paper builds on theory developed by the new regional geographers over the last twenty years, most notably Anne Gilbert and Anssi Paasi, and applies the theoretical framework to three North American case studies in what can be classified as ad hoc rural initiatives in contested landscapes, initiated by local or grassroots actors to foster a specific conceptualization of region. While specific programming varies for different groups, rural regionalism addressed the balance between and interconnections of landscape and land use change, social networks, economic viability, and impacts of global industry. Central to the case studies are actors' efforts to create a regional identity, including forming institutions, defining regional boundaries, and identifying social/symbolic shapes for the region. The research discusses the importance of viewing regionalization through the lens of agency.

Этнический национализм и государственное строительство (review)

Этнический национализм и государственное строительство (review)

Regional Identity in Regional Development and Planning1

This paper analyses the regional identity and social capital formation process and components. Regional identity is the special kind of phenomenon, which forms throughout historical and territorial socialization. The great ambition of this paper is to interrelate Anssi Paasi (1986) and other cultural geographers' and sociologists' ideas with recent regional economic development and planning discussion and to enhance regional identity as a planning tool. The theoretical part describes components and the process of regional identity formation. We assume that regional identity correlates with people's volition in achieving common goals, raises their personal activity and influences due to that regional development and planning. The regional identity is crucial in securing public participation in planning. The empirical part of the paper is based on mass survey analysis.

Renewing the Geography of Regions

Recent academic discourses pertaining to a ‘new regionalism’ in economic development and territorial representation, in parallel with the constitutional restructuring of certain nation-states, have done much to revive a widespread debate about regional change. Although cautiously welcoming this, the authors raise a concern that much contemporary reasoning has a tendency to conceal fundamental questions relating to political struggle and the contested social and cultural practices through which societies assume their regional shape. They contend that the geohistorical approach of Anssi Paasi, a distinguished proponent of the ‘new regional geography’, can help to unravel the culturally embedded institutionalisation of regions and thereby advance a meaningful understanding of regional change. Paasi's reconstructed geography of regions is then deployed to analyse a series of struggles to construct ‘the North’ as a fully institutionalised territory within the political and cultural landscape of Britain. The paper concludes with some thoughts on how to practice a re newed geography of regions in the hope of sparking a more imaginative regional cultural politics.

In what sense a region? Place hybridity, symbolic shape, and institutional formation in (post-) modern Scotland

Throughout the 1990s, many social scientists have been heralding the region as a key site for the effective governance of economic development. Increasingly, such debates have sought to consider the constitutive effect of political, institutional, and cultural processes upon a region's economic development, and its particular blend of governance. Straddling this, a number of human geographers have been keen to stress that a region is neither reducible to an empirical given nor merely a `container' for social processes. One of the most explicit statements in this `reconstructed regional geography' emanates from Anssi Paasi, who seeks to develop a framework for understanding how regions emerge, and are continually reproduced and transformed in and through the practices of individuals and institutions at a variety of spatial levels. This emphasis on the wider sociospatial structure and collective consciousness of `society' helps to foreground issues of spatial scale, boundaries, institutional formation and cultural identity. The author deploys Paasi's framework in an effort to provide some conceptual inroads towards our understanding of modern Scotland as a distinct territorial unit, and of its contemporary institutional expression for governing economic development. The paper is thus an endeavor to provide a historical and spatially sensitive analysis of Scotland's peculiar institutional form as a `stateless nation' or `national region', and its associated `difference' from other regions vis-à-vis the United Kingdom's landscape of political opportunity. These social forces have indeed come to the fore in the recent debate surrounding the proposal for a devolved Parliament for Scotland.

Territories, Boundaries, and Consciousness: The Changing Geographies of the Finnish-Russian Border. By Anssi Paasi. Belhaven Studies in Political Geography. New York: Wiley, 1996. xxi, 353 pp. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Indexes. Photographs. Figures. Maps. $85.00, hard bound.

Territories, Boundaries, and Consciousness: The Changing Geographies of the Finnish-Russian Border. By Anssi Paasi. Belhaven Studies in Political Geography. New York: Wiley, 1996. xxi, 353 pp. Appendix. Notes. Bibliography. Indexes. Photographs. Figures. Maps. $85.00, hard bound. - Volume 57 Issue 4