"... Fortrolighed og venskab." Grenseoverskridende transaksjon, soft diplomacy og mat på Nordkalotten i tidlig ny tid

Through 200 years cross-border relations and border issues between Norway and Russia in the High North were solved by means of a specific set of diplomatic mechanisms related to the administration of the ”common district”, fellesdistriktet, between the two states. Since the Middle Ages such districts had existed between the Nordic states and between Russia and her Nordic neighbours, due to the absence of clearly defined state borders. After the escalation of power struggle and even outbreak of war on territorial hegemony on the North Calotte at the end of the sixteenth and early in the seventeenth centuries, several of the districts were either dissolved or reorganised. The district that survived for the longest period of time was that between Russia and Norway. At the same time both Russian and Norwegian state authorities claimed taxation rights and even supremacy in parts of the common district, pretension claims that were continuously mutually presented until the end of the history of the Russian-Norwegian common district.   The main aim of the article is to offer an answer to the question why the relations between Russia and Norway were uniquely stable and peaceful through the whole period of two hundred years, in spite of reoccurring episodes of conflict and tensions, and why the common district survived for such a long time. Soft power and soft diplomacy theories are applied to clarify research positions, hypotheses and methods of approach. The empirical evidence for testing the hypotheses is contemporary accounts on a peculiar institute established early in the seventeenth century and operating until the final phases of the common district era to handle the common district challenges, namely a yearly meeting in the town of Kola (Malmis) between local representatives respectively of the Danish-Norwegian king and the Russian tsar, from the second half of the eighteenth century every third year. The institute got the name of ”the Malmis meeting” or ”the Malmis travel.” The outstanding account by the Finnmark bailiff Niels Knag after the Malmis meeting in the winter of 1690–91 is the main source material. A central aspect of the meeting is diplomatic talks, ”in confidence and friendship”, combined with extensive social life not least including food feasting, a phenomenon often presented as a characteristic feature of soft diplomacy

Modellenes tyranni 2.0

Ein av dei store metodedebattane i førre hundreåret gjekk mellom historikaren Jens Arup Seip og statsvitaren Stein Rokkan. Kjernen i motsetninga låg i tittelen på Seips åtak på Rokkan på det nordiske historikarmøtet i 1974, «Modellenes tyranni». Rokkan svarte med artikkelen «Detaljenes tyranni».1 Seip trefte ikkje heilt med sin kritikk, for Rokkans modellar var ikkje lausrive frå den historiske empirien dei vart nytta på. Det var heller tvert om; Rokkan nytta sine modellar som reiskap for å strukturera ein omfattande historisk empiri i analysar som tok høgde for historisk variasjon. Hans modellar fekk då også raskt ein plass i historieforskinga, især blant yngre historikarar. Dette låg elles i tida. Utviklinga i historiefaget var på veg bort frå den teorilause kritiske empirismen, i retning mot samfunnsvitskapane, noko som kom til uttrykk i den sosialhistoriske vendinga i tida. Her vart Rokkan viktig, ikkje minst for historikarar i Nord-Noreg, som lét seg inspirera særleg av hans analysar av korleis historiske konfliktlinjer kunne forklara særeigne sider ved periferimobilisering i nord

Immigration from northern Finland and Sweden to northern Norway in the 19th century

Immigration from northern Finland and Sweden to northern Norway in the 19th centur

North Norway : An Invention?

The article has as a starting point the fact that regions are one of the central political topics of today. Though regions have certain roots in history, they were not politicized until the nineteenth century, when they were “invented” as a tool for identity-shaping and development in the fringe areas of the state. The article operates with North Norway as a case in analyzing modern region-building processes and state regionalization strategies. This region is well suited as a case because of its particular position as a border area and its unique position in Norway’s political and economic history. The region-building process developed through distinct stages. In the 1970s North Norway came close to being understood as an identity region. Since the early 1990s, however, there have been fissures in this identity and the old regional visions have been under pressure from within as well as from without. In addition old tensions within the region have been disclosed. The most striking example is Finnmark, the northernmost county of the region, and of the nation as well, which through history has played a role in the margin. It is a kind of historical irony that the current development of the Norwegian “northern policy” programme together with the promising prospect of ocean-based oil and gas industry has put Finnmark in the forefront of future expectations

Siirtolaisuus Pohjois-Suomesta ja -Ruotsista Pohjois-Norjaan 1800-luvulla

Siirtolaisuus Pohjois-Suomesta ja -Ruotsista Pohjois-Norjaan 1800-luvull

Peripheral localities and innovation policies: Learning from good practices between the Nordic countries

The focus of the PLIP project has been on local development policy supporting innovation processes in peripheral localities. The core phases of the project were a comparison of Nordic innovation policies from the point of view of small towns and rural areas, an analysis of good practices, a transferability analysis and the transfer of good practices, and the drawing of conclusions