Open AccessCROSS-BORDER REGIONAL RESILIENCE: CONCEPTUAL AND EMPIRICAL NOTIONS
Author(s) -
Teemu Makkonen,
Tomi Hokkanen,
Jouni Korhonen,
Arttu Malkamäki
Publication year - 2019
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Conference proceedings
DOI - 10.36867/br.2019.87.66.003
Subject(s) - resilience (materials science) , context (archaeology) , process (computing) , economic geography , psychological resilience , order (exchange) , empirical research , computer science , regional science , business , geography , epistemology , psychology , philosophy , physics , archaeology , finance , psychotherapist , thermodynamics , operating system
The benefits of crossborder cooperation for regional development have been widely accepted. The progress towards open borders and increased interaction across the border is, thus, seen as a beneficial process for crossborder regions. This process does not, however, proceed in a linear fashion from low to high crossborder integration. Rather, at times the barrier effect of the border is decreased (debordering) and at times increased (rebordering). These changes in the permeability of the border are many times caused by external shocks. However, the crossborder regions need to find ways to cope with these external shocks in order to maintain their current level or to transform themselves into a higher level of crossborder cooperation. This discussion resonates with the concept of regional resilience. Here the concept is applied in a crossborder context to formally define a novel approach, namely crossborder regional resilience, to address the issues of: 1) how resilient are crossborder regions against rebordering and 2) how robust are crossborder cooperation networks against failures in crossborder connectivity. Existing empirical studies along the Finnish Russian border point towards a conclusion that crossborder cooperation in the area is not particularly vulnerable to network failures and that regional actors are constantly trying to cope with recent debordering developments to maintain crossborder cooperation. These findings and the discussion on the theoretical backgrounds of the concept point towards a promising avenue for further research. The issue has also started to attract the attention of policymakers, which further underlines the topicality of addressing resilience in crossborder contexts.