Territories,Boundaries and Consciousness: Paasi’s enduring lessons on spatial socialization and social spatialization

Abstract

This commentary revisits Territories, Boundaries and Consciousness Anssi Paasi’s landmark monograph about the changing geographies of the Finnish-Russian border (1996). It discusses how the book contributed to the poststructuralist turn in political and cultural geography and to the reinvention of both geopolitics and border studies. It argues that the book remains an insightful and inspiring read as Paasi’s lessons on spatial socialization, social spatialization and the multiscalar dynamics of geopolitical representations and national identities have much to offer to research and understand spatial imaginaries and spatial identities in the comprehensive (geo-) political rearrangements we are currently witnessing.