Polycentricity as spatial imaginary: the case of Helsinki City Plan

The paper analyses with a case study the use of a widely applied normative concept of polycentricity as spatial imaginary. The case study of Helsinki City Plan and the conflict over its city-boulevard scheme draws on qualitative content analysis of planning documents and expert interviews. It demonstrates the instrumental role of multiple interpretations of polycentricity in tension-ridden metropolitan and city-regional spatial planning. The conflict reveals how the conceptual ambiguity of polycentricity and the institutional vagueness of city-regional planning have together enabled advancing contradictory political aims under their guise. In conclusion, the paper emphasizes the persuasive performativity and fluidity of polycentricity as a spatial imaginary in multi-scalar planning settings.     

The End of Violence and Introduction of 'Real' Politics: Tensions in Peaceful Northern Ireland

This article discusses contemporary developments in the Northern Ireland peace process, and pays particular attention to some of the main paths away from political violence towards 'real' politics. Even the peace process has left many tensions in Northern Ireland. The article focuses on the gap between formal governing or decision–making and everyday life in localities, and the role of geographical scales in the peace initiatives is touched upon. In particular, the Belfast Agreement and its effects on localities are assessed to illustrate some of the advances and drawbacks of the multi–level peace developments. By looking at the local context of Derry/Londonderry, this study shows how ambiguous the very existence of peace is in Northern Ireland: for international media there is peace in Northern Ireland, for local politicians 'yes, maybe', but for many locals 'no'. In the localities territoriality, secured boundaries and collective identities remain crucial elements of everyday life.     

Cruisers in the City of Helsinki: staging the mobility of cruise passengers

Abstract

International cruise passengers moving in urban destinations have particular time limitation that can make enabling and disabling elements of mobility meaningful on the quality of their visit. Identifying these elements is essential to improve their independent movement. Based on a staging mobilities framework that considers the dimensions of physical settings, material spaces, design (PMD), social interactions (SI) and embodied performances (EP) in situ, the research has analysed location-specific information in Helsinki, a popular port of call in the Baltic Sea. The study has used go-along observations and mobile application in data collection. The produced dataset was analysed by combining GIS-methods and content analyses. As a result, five categories were identified under the dimension of PMD: wayfinding tools, unexpected situations, lack of rest spots and walkability. Categories identified under the dimension of SI were local people, service providers and travel companions, and other tourists. Categories identified under the dimension of EP were traffic behaviour, occasioned activities, sense of direction, planning, and time-related anxiety. Urban destinations such as Helsinki can apply these results in practice, to make the movement of independently moving cruise passengers as effortless as possible, contributing to a better experience of the city space for both tourists and other city users. The proposed methodology could also be used to analyse other mobility-related phenomena.     

Confrontation and conciliation: the sami,the crown and the court in seventeenth-century swedish lapland1

This article aims to discover in what kind of legal cases conflicts may be traced between the Sami and representatives of the Crown, and in which situations conciliation is apparent; and it also answers the questions of how and why this happened. It is evident, from the court rolls from the court district of Jukkasjärvi (one of the two northernmost lappmarker in Sweden at this time), that the Crown prosecuted the Sami for sexual offences and crimes against religion. This was due to the prevailing ideology of the seventeenth century, in which Lutheran Christianity prevailed, and because the court was the arena for a power discourse: there was a “right” way to live and behave. This came into conflict with Sami tradition. The Sami themselves pursued a desire and need for conciliation, which becomes apparent in cases of crimes such as murder, manslaughter and grand theft, but also in civil cases, e.g. inheritance. This was due to the fact that the population was quite small, bound together in different relations, and because large-scale conflicts were not beneficial to Sami communities. Even though the Crown Court was an arena of power, it was also used by the Sami for their own ends, and thus we can see an interactive Sami society, independent of the prevailing political Lutheran Christian ideology and its discourse.     

Neoliberalizing Border Management in Finland and Schengen

Abstract: This paper provides a critical examination of the development of border management in Finland and the Schengen Area, the point of departure being that contemporary performances of border enforcement and security cannot be understood as distinct from the process of neoliberalization. The particular case which is examined is that of the Finnish Border Guard (FBG) service. Border management in Finland provides an interesting case not only because Finland is responsible for controlling the Schengen, European Union–Russian border but also because since Finnish state reforms in the early 1990s, neoliberal rationales have increasingly provided the guidelines for how to calculate and optimize border security. This paper emphasizes that the rationales of border management should be made transparent and opened for public debate. The analysis is structured around the themes of internationalization, competitiveness, risk prevention and the functioning of society, all of which are regarded as the key rationales of neoliberalized border governance.