The Construction of Transport Corridors in the European North From Vertical to Horizontal Orders of Regionalisation
PYNNÖNIEMI, KATRI (2000)
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PYNNÖNIEMI, KATRI
2000
Kansainvälinen politiikka - International Relations
Yhteiskuntatieteellinen tiedekunta - Faculty of Social Sciences
Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2000-03-01Sisällysluettelo
1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. Formulation of the Research Questions and Frame of Study 3 1.1.1. Frame of Study: Creating Institutional Facts 4 1.2. The Scope of the Study and Identification of Sources 5 1.3. Relation to the Previous Research 6 2. THE RESHAPEMENT OF SPACE 10 2.1. Regions and the Purposive Order of Space 10 2.2. Contradictory Functions of Regionalisation and Regionalism 13 2.3. Breaking of the Hierarchies – an Emergence of Polities 15 2.3.1. Networking the Excluded? 18 3. SPECIFIC FEATURES OF THE REGIONAL RESHAPEMENT IN THE SOVIET UNION AND RUSSIA 19 3.1. Purposive Order of Space in the Soviet Union 19 3.1.1. The Spatial Organisation of Northern Areas 21 3.1.2. Conquering Space: Establishment of the Soviet Transport System 24 3.1.3. The Great Northern Route: A Project of Century 27 3.2. The "Bourgeois Revolution" of Regions 31 3.2.1. Aspects of Continuity 32 3.2.2. Tendencies of Change 35 3.2.3. Building of New Transport Connections 38 3.3. Purposive Order of the Soviet Transport System under Construction 41 4. STRUCTURE OF THE RESEARCH 42 4.1. Methodical Application: The Construction of Social Reality 42 4.1.1. External Realism as a Background Condition of Intelligibility 44 4.1.2. Ontological and Epistemological Points of Departure 45 4.1.3. Assignment of Function – The Formula "X counts as Y in C" 48 4.2. Organising Concepts 53 4.3. The Structure of Analysis and Summary of Problem Formulation 55 5. DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSPORT NETWORK IN THE EUROPEAN NORTH 56 5.1. Analysis of Functions Assigned to Transport "Corridors" and "Areas" 56 5.1.1. Search for the Direct Inter-regional Transport Connections 56 5.1.2. The Oulu-Karelia-Arkhangel’sk-Komi Corridor or the Northern Corridor? 63 5.1.3. The Barents Euro-Arctic Transport Network 67 5.1.4. The Barents Euro-Arctic Transport Area 71 5.2. Purposive Order of Transport Development in Making 76 6. TENDENCIES OF REGIONAL RESHAPEMENT IN NORTHWEST RUSSIA 80 6.1. Purposive Orders of Regional Reshapement 81 6.2. Bringing Northwest Russia into the European sphere? 85 7. CONCLUSION: FROM VERTICAL TO HORIZONTAL ORDER 87 8. EPILOGUE: THE NORTHERN CORRIDOR – A PROJECT OF CENTURY 90 PRIMARY PRINTED SOURCES 93 BIBLIOGRAPHY 96 APPENDIX 105 APPENDIX 2. 110
Tiivistelmä
Current changes in the political landscape of Northern Europe are characteristic of post-Cold War international relations as a whole. During this short period of time globalisation, localisation and regionalisation have challenged previously unproblematic state sovereignty. The blurring of state-region interface in post-Soviet Russia has been affected by these processes but has followed the logic of its own. The regionalisation of post-Soviet space constitutes tendencies of disintegration and integration, and therefore, it is convenient to count this process as reshapement. The purpose of this study is to examine the process of regional reshapement in Northwest Russia.
In the regional reshapement, the functional and territorial fragmentation is combined with the functional and, to some extent, territorial re-integration. These processes, and especially territorial integration, require reconstruction of inter-regional connections. Owing to the previous policy to construct transport routes in vertical rather than horizontal direction, the horizontal connections within and between the regions are incomplete or totally lacking. Therefore, construction of new inter-regional connections is considered essential for establishment and improvement of the regional co-operation.
My question formulation and methodical application base on the Searlean argumentation for constructivist theory of social reality. Accordingly, regions, ‘corridors’ or ‘transport areas’ do not exist independently of human intentionality. The examination of functions assigned to the development of horizontal transport connections in different contexts provides a key to study the reshaping of territorial and functional space and the purposive orders in-making.
It may be argued that from the regional viewpoint the improvement of the horizontal connections is an instrument to enhance regional independence from the centre, and at the same time provide for integration of previously excluded regional economies. In Northwest Russia, the search for ‘direct connections’ to the adjacent regions, is accompanied with an aim to improve connections to Europe and the world markets. In the framework of the Barents region, the development of transport connections is aimed at the integration of western and eastern parts of the region. Although the subject of co-operation - the construction of horizontal connections - does not change, the creation of a new concept ‘the Barents Euro-Arctic Transport Area’ provides for maintaining rather than reconstruction of existing structures.
Since the accession of Finland and Sweden to the European Union, the Union acquired a new northern dimension and the integration of northern transport networks became a part of the EU enlargement policies. Whether approached from the regional or state perspective the questions is about management of the change that allows for the construction of horizontal spaces in the East-West direction.
In the regional reshapement, the functional and territorial fragmentation is combined with the functional and, to some extent, territorial re-integration. These processes, and especially territorial integration, require reconstruction of inter-regional connections. Owing to the previous policy to construct transport routes in vertical rather than horizontal direction, the horizontal connections within and between the regions are incomplete or totally lacking. Therefore, construction of new inter-regional connections is considered essential for establishment and improvement of the regional co-operation.
My question formulation and methodical application base on the Searlean argumentation for constructivist theory of social reality. Accordingly, regions, ‘corridors’ or ‘transport areas’ do not exist independently of human intentionality. The examination of functions assigned to the development of horizontal transport connections in different contexts provides a key to study the reshaping of territorial and functional space and the purposive orders in-making.
It may be argued that from the regional viewpoint the improvement of the horizontal connections is an instrument to enhance regional independence from the centre, and at the same time provide for integration of previously excluded regional economies. In Northwest Russia, the search for ‘direct connections’ to the adjacent regions, is accompanied with an aim to improve connections to Europe and the world markets. In the framework of the Barents region, the development of transport connections is aimed at the integration of western and eastern parts of the region. Although the subject of co-operation - the construction of horizontal connections - does not change, the creation of a new concept ‘the Barents Euro-Arctic Transport Area’ provides for maintaining rather than reconstruction of existing structures.
Since the accession of Finland and Sweden to the European Union, the Union acquired a new northern dimension and the integration of northern transport networks became a part of the EU enlargement policies. Whether approached from the regional or state perspective the questions is about management of the change that allows for the construction of horizontal spaces in the East-West direction.