Lab member Jussi P. Laine, Professor of Multidisciplinary Border Studies at the University of Eastern Finland, has contributed a chapter to the inaugural edition of the Routledge Handbook of European Borderlands, edited by James W. Scott and Thomas M. Wilson. The handbook will be published on October 31, 2025.
Jussi’s chapter, titled “The Shifting Significance of the Finnish-Russian Borderland,” examines the dynamic transformations of the Finnish-Russian border region in response to major (geo)political shifts in Europe over recent decades. The chapter traces the borderland’s evolution from a fuzzy demarcation zone between the Swedish and Russian Empires, through periods of militarisation, Cold War division, and post-Soviet cooperation, to its current state as a highly bordered space following the cessation of extensive cross-border initiatives.
The research highlights how Finland’s relationship with the Soviet Union and later Russia has been shaped by common history, Cold War realities, pragmatism, and interdependencies. Jussi argues that the Finnish-Russian borderland exemplifies the ambivalent consequences of globalization, demonstrating that linear trajectories of cross-border integration are exceptional rather than typical. Instead, the borderland reflects ongoing “debordering” and “rebordering” processes that challenge assumptions about the inevitability of regional integration.
The chapter is available open access on ResearchGate, and the handbook can be pre-ordered from Routledge.