Kiista kansallisesta identiteettiprojektista

Authors

• Pami Aalto
• Tapio Brusiin
• Jaakko Kauko
• Akseli Koskela
• Charly Salonius-Pasternak

Abstract

This article examines the debate that started at the turn of the millennium among Finnish researches, expert observers and politicians on the past and present of the Finnish national identity project and related geopolitical choices away from the Soviet Union/Russia and towards EU membership and a possible NATO membership. Instead of what looked like a polarised debate on issues such as the extent to which othering of Russians and Russia should be taken as a pivotal ingredient of the Finnish identity project, we introduce a Q methodological study moving beyond the methodological solutions, conflicting claims, and the apparently dichotomic setting suggested in the debate. We find four different attitudinal groups: modern realist geopolitics, critique of the othering of Russia, bordered Finland, and an image of constructed places and flexible identities. The apparently dichotomic setting is questioned and a thin common ground between the participants is outlined.