Mapping the study of the Baltic Sea area: From nation-centric to multinational history

Abstract

In this article alternative ways of using the Baltic Sea area, North East Europe and Northern Europe among historians are examined. The Baltic Sea area and Northern Europe have been depicted as historical regions, but what does that mean? The older tradition has concentrated on looking for unifying structures, while the latest discussion has underlined the combining role of the sea or comprehended the area as a contact zone. In this article, it is argued that geography is not a passive setting but a social construct. On that basis, three different usages of historical regions are developed: one based on the metaphor of network, another looking for a space of mixed identities and yet a third concentrating on the study of spatial imagination.