Introduction: The Baltic Sea Region—Scars, Seams and Stitches

Makarychev, Andrey; Segbers, Klaus

doi:10.1057/978-1-352-00014-6_1

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…They are an act of de-bordering Eastern Europe withdrawing Latvia from there and setting up an imagined wall to distinguish the Latvianness from the core of Eastern Europeanness – Russianness. The process is called ‘suturing’ that denotes a mix of bordering and de-bordering for stabilising dispersed identity in different semiotic order (Makarychev & Yatsyk, 2017, p. 6). Interplay of internal and external features underpin designing a new identity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Interplay of internal and external features underpin designing a new identity. However, just as fixing a single Baltic Sea identity shared among Nordic, Baltic countries and Russia is almost impossible because of ‘irreducible and inassimilable otherness of Russia that leaves “the decentred traces”’ (Makarychev & Yatsyk, 2017, p. 7), consenting over one self-understanding is challenging in Latvia. The Latvian society-in-making has inherited characteristics of different regional self-interpretations, which complicates the country’s becoming itself.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Discoursive Region Building in Latvia: The Case for a Contemporary Identity Search

Djatkovica

2023

Alternatives: Global, Local, Political

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Three decades into the independence restoration of Latvia and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country has integrated well into the Western community. It is a member of the EU and NATO, the Schengen area, the eurozone, and, since recently, OECD. Turning Westwards, Latvia attempted to abolish the post-Soviet and enter the European spatiality above all to secure the country’s physical existence. But not less importantly, to redefine the collective understanding of the Self. The principal argument I make in this article is that countries with the Soviet past may seek their contemporary identity in self-attribution to the desired political regions. That is, embed their new identities in discursive regionalism. The example of Latvia showcases the argument. However, ambiguous discourses of the Latvian regional belonging persist in the national imaginary. The range varies from the post-Soviet and its milder alternative – Eastern European – to the Northern European and Baltic. The mixed regional affiliations result from inconsistencies in the region-building approach exercised by the political elite of Latvia. They stem from the country’s ontological security search in NATO and the EU accession aftermath and amid the war in Ukraine within the newly acquired regional identities contrasted with the vestiges of the Soviet past.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%