Helsinki/Tallinn bipolarcity
ALEKSI NEUVONEN
26.05.2004
to make rational and grounded decisions?
In an ideal bipolarcity the ultimate goal would be to enable people to form personal relationships across the borders and thereby gain deeper views on life in other city. But that is something which is rarely present by now between Helsinki and Tallinn; there are still a strong cultural and lingual borders. The same problem is preventing EU to become something more than an economic union plus some symbols: there are no Europe-wide discussions on our common key issues, the arguments we face are still mostly national.
Hypothesis 3: A bipolarcity is a place where discussion on unifying issues emerger over cultural borders
EU is about opening the mobility between countries. Goods and capital are already very mobile, people (e.g. labour) a bit less. We are also yet to experience the true positive impacts of global human mobility; so far we have just tasted inspiring flavors of foreign cultures. What would it be like when peoples would really mix and nationality would not be primary character we give to oneself?
It is to be seen whether such a hyper-mobility of people will ever occur. As an abstract ideal it sounds inspiring. Yet it is very difficult to draw a sensible scenario of such a future.
The visions of mobility of cultural signs and people have focused on global scale. What we mostly pay attention to are global connections, networks and subcultures; regional versions are just sub-systems. Anyhow, it sounds logical that the kind of mixing of people would first happen between neighbouring regions. Between Helsinki and Tallinn most of the recognizable conditions seem to be already there: Economic or political regulations on people’s mobility are diminishing. There are enough common languages, either English, the global lingua franca, or idiosyncratic compilations of common Ugric words. Basically all the imaginable services are as easily available on the other side as at home. Finally, there are functioning and inexpensive communication systems, which means you will never be too far away from home.
Hypothesis 4: In a bipolarcity nationality or origin looses its significance
As mentioned earlier, while global connections improve, old cultural barriers faint and a growing group of people operate literally on a planetary level (either virtually or physically), cities (and many other physical environments) are developing towards a lesser degree of variation. It is claimed that there are two competing macro-models for a city: European and American, L.A.-styled one, former being
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