Positionality Switch: Remapping Resource Communities in Russian Borderlands
提出“位置性转换”概念,通过分析芬兰-俄罗斯边境两个林业社区在跨境贸易和边界半渗透性变化下的命运,说明资源边缘地区的地方模型如何被重新绘制,对研究资源经济与边境社区的学者有参考价值。
Abstract This article elaborates on the contested periphery approach and related local models. Some economic geographers argue that the peculiarities of resource peripheries cannot be understood with the help of economic theories designed in economic cores. The contested periphery approach was developed specifically for resource economies and stresses the importance of geographically variable interactions of stakeholder groups that channel broad institutional values (industrialism, regulationism, environmentalism, and aboriginalism) into peripheries. Along with local features, they create local models, and changes in relations occasionally remap the conditions for resource utilization. The contested periphery approach is based on comparisons between large territorial regions, but we argue that this does not provide sufficient tools to recognize the relationally formed heterogeneity of peripheries. Instead, this article focuses on the changing positionalities of local communities. We introduce the concept of positionality switch to highlight the ways abrupt shifts in the direction of relations alter local positionalities. Empirically, we explore two R ussian forestry communities in the F innish‐ R ussian borderland. Cross‐border trade connections and the shifting semipermeability of the boundary have greatly influenced the local model and remapped borderland communities. Reestablished timber export in the 1990s began to create a local model shaped by imported forestry technologies and work organization systems. In the 2000s, higher customs duties for wood and deteriorating transportation links cut off both the cross‐border and domestic connections leaving the settlements in limbo. The article concludes by arguing that the contested periphery approach and local models should be localized and supplemented with the concepts of positionality and positionality switch as well as contextually relevant concepts because they help to better understand the particularities and specific relations of each local model .