The Baltic Sea Region is a maritime space which has developed since the end of the Cold War into one of the most dynamic areas in Europe characterised by a high degree of inter-regional cooperation at different scales and among multiple actors. However, environmental and societal challenges have become a growing pressure with the urgent need to foster more sustainable pathways for the development of the Baltic Sea Region as a whole and its differentiated localities. In addition, the region is also developing into a contested geo-political space.
The session discusses challenges and opportunities relating to spatial transformations toward more sustainable futures in the Baltic Sea Region focussing on actors, institutions and processes. Fragmentation is one result of multiple processes creating new spatial ‘value’ configurations which might be either negatively or positively related to changing dynamics of economic spaces (e.g. new competitive clusters or places that ‘don’t matter’). In this sense, fragmentation refers to unequal patterns spatially, induced by actors, institutions and processes at multiple scales.
We invite submissions that contribute to a better understanding of fragmented transformations in the Baltic Sea. Examples for broad topics of the expected contributions are as follows: