Reading Paasi and Living through Bounded Spaces

Abstract

AbstractThis brief article dedicates a few subjective considerations to the versatility and afterlives of Paasi's conceptual thinking, enriching the way we perceive spaces and borders in highly differentiated environments and times. I will confess my uneasiness with bounded spaces and explore the origins of that unease. I draw inspiration from feminist geography, which embraces subjectivity, dispelling the myth of objectivity. Although not explicitly referenced by Paasi himself, Paasi's article implicitly poses similar feminist questions: Who gains? Who is overlooked and who loses within bounded spaces and ‘borderless’ orders? For whom are spatial and territorial borders beneficial, and whom do they oppress? I will further examine how the ideas of spaces, borders and boundaries have evolved in my specific interpretation of Paasi's writing. The text will be interspersed with insights into lived experiences of regions, products, brands and people's consciousness, or, as in my case, awkward embodied experiences.