Pauliina Raento
University of Helsinki
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Featured researches published by Pauliina Raento.
Geografiska Annaler Series B-human Geography | 2005
Pauliina Raento; Stanley D. Brunn
ABSTRACT. Postage stamps are a very political, territorially grounded and yet overlooked part of visual culture. We argue that the mundane omnipresence of stamps gives them considerable nation‐building power and makes them exemplary tools of what Michael Billig calls ‘banal nationalism.’ By focusing on the socially constructed visual qualities of stamps, we argue that their ‘reading’ as political, socioculturally and territorially specific texts offers valuable insights into the evolution and outlook of the issuing state and the ‘imagined community’ within its boundaries. Our examination of 1 457 stamps issued in continental Finland between 1917 and 2000 shows how the desired visual representation of the Finnish state, nation and society has evolved over time, along with the changing outlook of the national elite, its relationship with ordinary citizens and the countrys geopolitical context. The stamps illustrate how the states focus shifted from war to peace, Finlands economy diversified and specialized, and the Finns reached a relatively high level of social welfare and equality. The myth of Finlands cultural homogeneity remained strikingly strong despite dramatic changes in Finlands cultural make‐up, suggesting that not only presence but also absence of a narrative from a visual scene can be strongly meaningful. Over the course of the twentieth century, Finnish nationalism grew increasingly ‘banal’ and inclusive in character, but the stamps maintained their central role in citizenship education. Our findings promote the use of postage stamps in the teaching and research of political geography and identity‐political iconographies.
Political Geography | 2000
Pauliina Raento; Cameron Watson
The town of Gernika/Guernica is the center for meaning and territorial continuity of Basque nationalist identity. The town and its symbolism represent the history of national conflict with the Spanish state. It is also the focal point of local disagreements; within Basque nationalism itself and between regional urban centers. The town’s significance in the Spanish Civil War, representation in Picasso’s painting Guernica, and commemoration in the Americas by Basque emigrants has made it a globally significant place. The contest of meanings related to Gernika/Guernica underscores the significance of naming, monuments, ritual, resistance, oppression, and conflict in the creation and maintenance of national identities. In its examination of the politics of a Basque place, the joining of the forces of geography and history proves to be useful in the analysis of meaning in place- and time-specific political processes. From this perspective, the recent development from conflict toward harmony in Basque politics is reviewed.
National Identities | 2008
Pauliina Raento; Stanley D. Brunn
Imagery on postage stamps contributes to the construction of national narratives, collective memory and a nations self-image because stamps are products of the state and constantly present in quotidian situations. An examination of 1,457 Finnish stamps issued during the countrys independence in the twentieth century is based on a mix of visual method(ologie)s. The stamps are read as multilayered, identity-political texts in their time- and space-specific contexts. The stamps narrate the evolution of the Finnish state, nation and society, and reflect the changing relationship between the state and its subjects.
Space and Polity | 1997
Pauliina Raento
Abstract The political context of Spanish Basque nationalism has changed dramatically during the last decades. As a consequence, moderate and radical nationalist groups have turned bitterly against one another. The internal power struggle is fought most visibly in the street, which is traditionally the central place of Basque political mobilisation. Particularly the radical nationalists use graffiti and mass demonstrations to question the legitimacy of the existing power structures. This paper examines the radical nationalist methods of mobilisation in the changing overall context of Basque politics. It is argued that the campaigns ought to be discussed as both instruments and expressions of local discontent, relevant at several geographical scales. The aim is to demonstrate the significance of local political activity for politics at regional, national and continental levels. Exactly this connection makes local public resistance an important subject of geographical study.
Names | 2001
Pauliina Raento; William A. Douglass
Abstract The naming of casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada, is an essential ingredient in the design of the citys entertainment landscape. More than 300 names have been used in the naming of gaming in Las Vegas since 1955. They occur in seven dominant patterns: 1) luck and good fortune, 2) wealth and opulence, 3) action, adventure, excitement and fantasy, 4) geography, 5) a certain moment, era, or season, 6) intimacy and informality, and 7) “power words” commonly used in the naming of businesses. The categories are described and analyzed from the perspective of the evolution of Las Vegas. Regional variations between the Las Vegas Strip, Downtown Las Vegas, and suburban Las Vegas are also discussed. The names provide a powerful means of evoking senses of place, images, and identities for the casinos. They underscore the interpretative subjectivity and plurality of the relationship between people and commercial urban environments.
International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education | 2005
Pauliina Raento; Petri Hottola
Behind this study are our (1) classroom observations suggesting a decline in the cartographic and general knowledge of Finnish geography students; (2) interest in developing the content and method of geographical education; and (3) belief that intellectual challenge is not incompatible with entertainment. A total of 257 university and high school geography students responded to a survey about US society and geography. The survey explored (1) the students’ interests and level of general geographic and cartographic knowledge; and (2) how the findings could contribute to the teaching of geography. What and how much the respondents knew varied substantially according to educational background, age, and gender. Women were weaker in their knowledge than men, and a strong link was found between television watching preferences and cartographic knowledge. Women’s poor performance suggests a problem with geography education in Finnish schools, as many future teachers of geography are female. The implications are that (1) geo-educators should seek fresh ways to engage themes that connect with their students’ preferred everyday activities and (2) cartographic knowledge needs special attention in female-dominated geography teacher education. We suggest that (1) there are several rather simple ways to begin this work and (2) the idea of ‘graphicacy’ should be revisited to support them.
International Gambling Studies | 2011
Pauliina Raento; Markus Meuronen
How do editorial cartoons represent gambling? What can visually oriented thinking give to gambling research? The answers are rooted in the expanding research about visual culture, methodologies and data in social sciences and cultural studies. The discussion about 170 editorial cartoons from the Finnish print media, from 1961 to 2005, shows how the cartoons profile the Finnish gambler and what emotions are associated with gambling. The discussion then turns to Finnish gambling culture and gamblings role in society. Space, communication, power relations, and the use of gambling as a political metaphor are highlighted. The assessment demonstrates the value of popular-cultural data for gambling studies. The examination complements the existing cartoon research and visual-cultural studies and has interdisciplinary pedagogical potential.
Geopolitics | 2016
Pauliina Raento
ABSTRACT The disregard of animal subjectivity in geopolitics is challenged as outdated and arrogant in light of the growing interdisciplinary understanding of the relational, dispersed, and co-evolving nature of agency. First, the war horse is examined by joining the instrumental approach of military history with the emphasis on emotion in animal studies. Knowledge about animal subjectivity is expanded by demonstrating how the horse itself has co-produced the Finnish experience in World War II and the national narrative about this conflict. Calculable territory, biopolitical state intervention, the political ecology of war, affect, and the body build connections between the horse’s war and theory, methodology, and concepts in political geography and geopolitics. Equine labour and response to the state’s geopolitically motivated breeding exercises during peace then bridge animal studies and critical geopolitics, showing how the horse has supported the formation of Finnishness. Finally, a look at contemporary mobility, geopolitics of disease, and biometric bordering exemplifies how the horse continues to adapt to new roles in Finnish society and contribute to human institutions and governance. The examination demonstrates the importance of other-than-human beings in the making of Finland as a political space and place. Suggestions for further studies and data point to opportunity. The article serves those who question rigid categorisations and segmentation of research and pedagogy into intellectually self-contained islands.
Geografiska Annaler Series B-human Geography | 2010
Pauliina Raento
Abstract. The relationship between boundaries, national identity, and food in the European Union is examined empirically in relation to social trust, banal nationalism, and scale. 212 articles published in 2002 in Finlands leading newspaper are examined as deep texts, addressing five juxtapositions: openness/closure; exports/imports; collectives/individuals; fear/opportunity; and defence/promotion. These articles, about food safety and changes in manufacturing and retail, reveal a concern over Finlands “national interest”; the fluidity of the sense of safety; a strong belief in the superiority of “Finnish ways”; and a need to defend “Finnishness” locally and nationally against globalization. The results show that perceptions of trustworthiness and shifting loyalties steer peoples behaviour in a way that affects supranational, national, and regional entities. The study confirms the value of examining quotidian elements in the geographical study of boundaries and social trust. The results highlight the importance of considering the reproduction of nations in the geographical assessment of nationalism.
National Identities | 2008
Pauliina Raento
Finland, a country of 5.3 million people in northern Europe, is an illustrative case study of territorial identity formation and nation-building. Its past and present highlight several characteristics of these processes. Such key concepts as ‘scale’, ‘networks’ and ‘boundaries’ are prominent in Finland’s borderland history between two powerful empires: the Kingdom of Sweden in the west and Russia/the Soviet Union in the east (see Paasi, 1996). The territory of Finland provided them with resources, a strategic buffer zone, and a meeting ground for multiple cultural influences. A north-south dimension has complemented these better-known connections to east and west (see Antonsich, 2005)*for example, in historical trade within the Baltic sphere, in twentieth-century military and intellectual affiliations, and in the distribution of political, economic, and demographic power within the territory of Finland. Since the Cold War and Finland joining the European Union in 1995, these orientations have diversified as representatives of the Finnish government and businesses have sought to profile the country through its ‘northern dimension’ and as ‘a gateway to Russia’ within the European Union. Constant change thus characterises the making of a nation, a state, and an identity. How these contacts have been, and are, understood varies within Finland and abroad. What in Finland has constituted an ‘us’, to whom, and why has shifted over time, leading to political disagreements and, at times, bloodshed. Support for competing views about nation-building and boundary-making has typically been mobilised through visual means. This emphasis has long roots in politicaladministrative needs and practices of the Kingdom of Sweden, of which Finland formed a part until 1809. During the subsequent rule of Imperial Russia, visual expressions of nascent national identity became more prominent, especially since the emergence of Finnish nationalism in the mid-nineteenth century. Many individuals involved with the movement were visual artists and academics. History and geography, with a strong emphasis on cartography, evolved into ‘national sciences’ and were prominent in the emerging national education system. An idea and an image of the territory of Finland were illustrated to rally the masses during the period of political resistance against Russia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. After independence from Russia in 1917, the leaders of the young republic employed visual methods in ‘making Finland known’ in foreign lands and in citizenship education in an ideologically and socio-economically divided, war-ridden society (a Civil War between ‘Whites’ and ‘Reds’ was fought in 1918) (Alapuro, 1988; Klinge, 2000; Lähteenkorva & Pekkarinen, 2005; Raento & Brunn, 2005). These processes underscore the interconnected roles of institutional and political-administrative practices, national and cultural elites, and popular culture in the making of a national territory and a nation as an ‘imagined community’ (Anderson, 1991). The end of the Cold War and Finland’s membership of the European Union highlighted international flows and networks, cultural hybrids, and increased