Work in progress

Writing something about the Barents Identity...what an hard task considering the fact that this region is made of differences and contrasts: 4 different countries, more than 4 different languages, different currencies, indigenous people, differences in the standard of living between Scandinavian countries and Russia. Does the Barents Region have a common identity? What is this identity? Can a Regional identity be made of gaps and contrasts?
They’re indeed a lot of tensions in this area, due to the fact that this region is a border region and because of all those differences (political, economical, cultural), but not only: tensions between the local and the global, tensions between the east and the west part of the region, tensions between tradition and modernity.
The four countries that make the Barents region have some features of development in common: history, sparse population, large areas, ethnic minorities, high amount of natural resources and the harsh and cold climate. Those common factors are a way to see the region as a strong entity with a possible future.
People who’re living there are for most of them proud of their past and cultural background. They all share the same strong relation with nature, wherever they live in the region.
But from now it seems that people who’re living in the Barents region are expecting something new, they’re expecting future. The difficulties people had to pass through the past years (with the decreasing of fisheries, the fall of the soviet union…) made them maybe stronger to face the future. All those differences and gaps are making the Barents Region as it is now.
How local people live with those differences? Would it be possible to reduce the economical gap between the east and the west part of the region in the future to hope a closest collaboration between the Scandinavian countries and Russia? Is it possible to make people stay for a long time in this area (and not only a place to work but a place to live!) and make it an attractive region in the future?
I don’t think that we can already speak about a Barents Identity yet… It asks for a lot of time to talk about identity for a region... maybe in a few years, who knows!
One thing is at least sure… the reindeers keep on crossing the borders!