Identity Formation in the Barents Euro-Arctic Region

Bibliographic Data

ID8911244
AuthorsGeir Honneland (corresponding author)
Year1998
Volume33
Issue3
Pages277-297
Publication date1998-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCooperation and Conflict (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0010-8367 • E-ISSN: 1460-3691
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0010836798033003003
OpenAlexW1969219421
LanguageEN
Citations received18
References cited17

The Barents Euro-Arctic Region was established in 1993 to further security objectives in the European North. In order to reach the superior goal of maintaining stability in the area, it is a declared aim to create an identity region with people from all parts of it conceiving of themselves as `us' as opposed to `them' outside. The common history of the populations in the area as well as their similar geographical frame of reference are emphasized as forces capable of enhancing such a process. In this article, various narratives concerning the possibility of creating a common northern identity across the former Iron Curtain are presented. Pending more extensive empirical evaluations of the identity formation efforts, a preliminary conclusion would be that the new northern identity is characterized above all by contrasts and paradoxes. While the Barents Region project has profoundly changed the lives of a whole group of young Russians — here called `the Barents generation' — great numbers of people in the region probably have not even heard of it. Furthermore, a new contrasting between East and West seems to be underway

Arctic · Business · Cold war · Economics · Economy · Geography · Identity (music · Iron Curtain · Narrative · Order (exchange · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · The arctic · Arctic and Russian Policy Studies · Cross-Border Cooperation and Integration · Geology · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Law · Oceanography