<TITLE: The Social Construction of Regions
ACADEMIC DOMAIN: social sciences
DISCIPLINE: international relations
EVENT TYPE: seminar presentation
FILE ID: USEMP03A
NOTES: continuation of and continued in USEMD110, seminar also includes presentations USEMP03B-C, mostly read from notes

RECORDING DURATION: 9 min 20 sec

RECORDING DATE: 9.12.2004

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: 11

NUMBER OF SPEAKERS: 1

S3: NATIVE-SPEAKER STATUS: Finnish; ACADEMIC ROLE: undergraduate; GENDER: female; AGE: 17-23>


<S3> er i was searching some information about the north as a region and basically scandinavian states and baltic er baltic states so er <READING ALOUD> the history of the northern parts of the europe has been full of competing a rival states who have been trying to rule different areas , er for a long time sweden and denmark were the most powerful states of the region and they reached their power over norwa- norway finland and estonia , later later on during 16th century also russia and during 18th century prussia were becoming more and more important players on the states of the scandinavian and baltic states second world war was to be the moment to determine the fate of the different states of the region for almost 40 years and in a way it still influences through the memories of the people of this region what becomes to the choices which states are taking , er the second world war also affected to the place of the north in a map of the europe , traditionally it is viewed as a periphery a border area of the europe , at the other side of the edge there is russia which is usually thought to be the other of europe the strange and faraway part of the world which is normally kept far enough from the centre of europe , so it i- it is of- obvious that north which is so close to russia is also far away from the centre still when we take closer look to the world today we have to know this that development is taking also the north closer to the centres , development of communication systems and mass media is making physical distances to disappear and it has also improved the opportunities of the north to build connections all around the world , there is no country or region that possibly isolate itself from the rest of the world </READING ALOUD> . and then the main points about the north as a region er <READING ALOUD> it seems that nordic countries have more in common that than with the other states of the europe , there is a r- long history which traces back to the ancient times and they have also formed personal unions and rule over each other in different times and so they have been able to affect in great ways to the development of nowadays separate states , this doesn't exclude the baltic states and to (view) they er belonging to this region , i use the thoughts of <NAME> and er probably many others , er according to <NAME> there are many characteristics for the regions and these characters may appe- appear at the same time it just depends what kind of region is under con- consideration , er the thoughts of the <NAME> about the baltics reg- baltic sea region can be transformed to the thoughts of the north as a region as follows <COUGH> er first northern areas er is area is a geographical and ecological region because they share the same sea which connects them together and at the same time they share the same same environmental problems because of the close geographical ties er geographical re- regionalisation is the weakest form of the forming a region , er level higher regionalisation is epistemic or identity region , this stage is dependent on the togetherness of the region what comes to the people's thoughts and feelings , it can also consist of shared history or same stage of cultural unity , and these factors can be found from the north </READING ALOUD> but they are er i won't introduth- introduce them now 'cause they are in the essay , <READING ALOUD> er when moving farther to regionalisation the i- area comes to situa- situation when region forms a system , it incs- includes for e- for example continuing connections infrastructure linkages and networks , between different act- actors which belong to the region , the northern region has a shortages of this stage of regionalisation but it is also developing in this area because of continuing cooperation . er organisation for cooperation is the main characteristic for the fourth stage of regionalisation countries in the northern areas have been developing er the organisational dimension of their cooperation although it has been rather weak for decades , the EU has however taken the organisation levels step farther , and under the union it is also possible to continue the development of regional cooperation , <COUGH> region as a civil society is the fifth stage , on this stage er people need to have a feeling of belonging together and they have to see themself belonging to the same region and feel a kind of national unity , sti- these stages however basically totally lacking in the regionalisation of the north although estonians may feel themse- themselves more northern rather than russian but peoples as a whole have their national identities and people in the neighbour countries are foreigners and partners of cooperation , er and the sixth stage of the regionalisation , er is basically the political system , er that is the final stage of regionalisation and needs to build from below , it is obvious that north isn't a polit- political region because traditional nation states hold the strongest position in the functioning functioning of the cooperation they of course work in the areas of politics but there isn't any higher authority to order different states on this area </READING ALOUD> , er and then i take a look to the , er well these all countries have a , this way to the europe and basically EU , er <READING ALOUD> the whole region of north has been moving towards europe and the european union during at least the 90s , after the cold war was over it became possible for the sweden and finland to join the EU and now all the baltic states have become part of the union also , the de- development has been quite clear , EU has also come closer to northern areas by the northern dimension programme which covers the baltic sea region arcti- arctic sea region and the north west of russia , it is planned to face the specific challenges of those regions and is trying to increase the cooperation between the EU members other states of the region and russia , the most important areas for cooperation and the framework of the northern dimension are nuclear safety energy cooperation environment infrastructure business cooperation justice and home affairs and social development and kaliningrad , and for the conclusions , er the northern parts of the europe have gone fra- gone far from the times of the hegemony position of one or two countries and times of occupation and fear of foreign invasion , <COUGH> they have formed different cooperational systems and organisational bodies to lead these in many ways different and in many ways similar countries , the most descriptive character of the north is nowata- nowadays cooperation in different areas and continued connection between region nation states , and still the consensus moved towards europe and it's tightening hold of the different parts of the europe , the north as a region is er one possible way to study this area but it consists also many other options , new actors on this area like the EU offers new ways to move and new possibilities for (xx) , natural resources and new inf- inventions link to the region offer a new capacity to compete with the rest of the world , these rather small countries are now connected to the bigger region of the european union but the regional cooperation is still needed because the knowledge of the needs possibilities and capacities lies still inside this subregion the northern region </READING ALOUD> , thank you </S3>
