Borders of Understanding: Re-making Frontiers in the Russian–Norwegian Contact Zone

Abstract

The dismantling of the Iron Curtain changed cooperation and interaction across the Russian–Norwegian border and allowed a huge increase in border crossings. This may be part of what Bauman describes as the ‘liquidizing’ processes of globalization, namely, the making of a ‘borderless world’, which includes processes of ‘de-territorialization’, implying weakened ties between culture and place. Thus, this interdisciplinary analysis of everyday life among Russian labour migrants and Norwegians in a small coastal community in northern Norway asks whether we see integration and cultural diversity producing a borderless world or social divisions and territorial segregation. The analysis employs the concepts of ‘bordering practices’, ‘intersectionality’, lived experience and, finally, ‘power geometry’. It is suggested that power geometry can be seen as three intersecting axes: power relationships caused by intersecting social positions; mobility; and the spatial layout of the social and cultural power in a locality. It is shown how bordering practices and social divisions affect one another, how they are constantly changing, and how they can include as well as exclude. It is seen that ‘the border’ and the divisions stemming from it are fluid, contextual and spatially manifested in the community. It is argued that ‘the border’ can describe the interaction between people in everyday life as well as state frontiers in the Russian–Norwegian borderland.