Laine, Jussi. 2013. New Civic Neighborhood: Cross-border Cooperation and Civil Society Engagement at the Finnish- Russian Border.

摘要

The thesis examines how new patterns of cross-border cooperation (CBC) between Finland and Russia since 1990 have formed the conditions of possibility for a "civic neighborhood" spanning the border between these two states. This neighborhood is particularly significant because it hovers over not only the national border but also the border between the European Union (EU) and its eastern neighbor. The author, Jussi Laine, considers this notion of the civic neighborhood as a bottom-up alternative to an EU-imposed topdown notion of "European neighborhood," and thus both a more genuine reflection of the geographical specificities of the Finnish- Russian border and a more effective means of building good neighborliness through cooperation. Significant sections of the thesis have been presented at conferences and have emerged in a succession of papers over the past couple of years, but this work draws together the various strands for the first time. The thesis runs to 400 full pages of text, and the author's aim and depth of his work are readily apparent.