contributors

León Poblete & H. Richard Nakamura

León Poblete, PhD candidate at the Department of Business Studies at Uppsala University, Sweden. Currently working on his doctoral dissertation in which he studies the dynamics of business-to-business relationships and complex business networks in industrial markets. The Swedish defense and security industry is the main empirical context in his research.

H. Richard Nakamura, assistant professor at the Centre for International Business Studies at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, holds a PhD in International Business Studies from Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden. His research concerns international business, management and entrepreneurship, especially regarding cross-border mergers and acquisitions and foreign direct investments in the Baltic Sea and East Asia regions.

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Articles by León Poblete & H. Richard Nakamura

  1. A twin city divided during Corona A story of unintended geopolitics

    The aim of this paper is to analyze the impact of state territorial regulations and restrictions against the spread of Covid-19 on the life of the population of the twin cities of Tornio and Haparanda, on the border between Finland and Sweden. To the inhabitants, the pandemic restrictions meant an oscillating “life world” of opportunities and containments, affecting them differently, often depending on decisions taken by distant authorities and for reasons irrelevant to the local borderland.

  2. “There are more lights in the windows” Challenges and opportunities for island societies in Sweden during the Covid-19 pandemic

    With more than 260 000 islands, Sweden is one of the countries with most islands in the world. Its islands are located along the coasts and in the larger lakes. For the municipalities and regions where they are located, the islands are places for recreation and symbols in tourism marketing. A rough overview over the impact of the pandemic on rural and remote areas indicates that Swedish tourism in 2020 and 2021 mainly consisted of “staycations” and that Swedish countryside attracted many people. However, our knowledge about the impact of Covid-19 on everyday life on islands, and on livelihoods and the tourism industry on islands, is still scarce. This article therefore answers the following questions: How has the pandemic influenced island communities, local livelihoods, and the tourism industry on islands?

  3. Theme: St. Petersburg in the 1990s. A window in time Introduction. St. Petersburg -- intangible heritage of the 1990s. Archiving work in progress

    One cannot go back in time and cannot experience it as it was. Yet this collection of memoirs is an attempt at the restoration of the immaterial culture of the 1990s in St. Petersburg. It was written with the awareness of the integrated failure of the project by all its participants.

  4. Tsopi, Georgia Where Azerbaijanis and Armenians are living side-by-side

    If we scratch the surface of this idyllic image of co-existence in the village of Tsopi, we may better understand what the limits are to the good relations among neighbors. This is especially interesting in light of the second Nagorno-Karabakh war, that broke out in 2020. In January 2022, the author stayed in Tsopi with an Armenian family to learn more about their life and the lives of the other villagers.

  5. Chernobyl as a post-Soviet memory space How ideas of progress and fear shaped a nuclear heritage site

    What Chernobyl means to different people has dramatically changed over time. Today, its image mostly invokes fear of radiation, illness, as well as uncertainty. The ruins of the plant are regarded as a somewhat unpredictable source of danger that needs constant attention and monitoring. This is a remarkable historical change from how Chernobyl used to be seen. Before 1986, the construction of Ukraine’s first major nuclear power plant symbolized progress and the hope for a better future. In light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and recent media coverage of nuclear energy in this context, Chernobyl has truly become a memory space, serving as a place for projections of a multitude of attitudes regarding nuclear safety, catastrophe, war, maintenance and negligence.

  6. What happened to the Russian Fashion Mafia?

    After the years of Covid closure, when the world was making socializing a possibility once more, Putin attacked Ukraine in February 2022. This meant controversies about how Russians are seen in all industries, including in fashion. So, what has happened to the Russian Fashion Mafia?

  7. Olena Zelenska on the cover of Vogue; ”criticized and praised”

    Even though it is not uncommon for first ladies of various countries to be pictured on the cover of Vogue, this time it stirred some concern. There have been heated discussions on social media. Why does the most prestigious fashion magazine in the world offer their front cover to a first lady defending her country, a country unknown for its design and fashion? And why does she accept? There were considerable discussions on the matter and Zelenska has been both criticized and praised for taking this opportunity.

  8. Why neutrality is dangerous for Ukraine’s statehood And why Ukraine may have to seek security agreements outside NATO

    In this essay it is argued that membership of a military alliance with clear security guarantees is a fundamental factor for safeguarding Ukraine’s statehood. The neutrality solution advocated for Ukraine by the so-called “realists” in both academic and political environments does not apply to the Ukrainian-Russian war. Realist readings, as the author demonstrates in the essay, are problematic and cannot explain the fully complex nature of the conflict. On the other hand, an insight into Russia’s imperial identity provides a more convincing outlook of the situation.

  9. Dehumanizing the Hate speech directed at Ukrainians in Russian media

    The impact of negative rhetoric towards Ukraine, the United States and European countries are the constant ingredients in the “menu” of Russian state media resources, not to mention blogs and social networks. Previous examples such as Rwanda and Srebrenica have shown how words of hatred lead to acts of hatred, with yesterday’s civilians being ready to kill their dehumanized neighbors. Unfortunately, one now can add to this list of examples Ukraine. Hate speech towards Ukraine began to gain momentum since 2014, after the “Revolution of Dignity” took place and the country was taking a political course towards European integration.

  10. Sovereignty and loneliness on Snake Island

    The concept presented by Bloodlands includes a particular state of being at the mercy of the cultural landscape, which has a complex imprint — of history, politics, socialization. I saw the task of my generation to be the “liberation” of this landscape, a performative healing of my country, where the process of coming to terms with the bloody past would have coexist with the development of solidary and non-violent cohabitation. Today’s war of annihilation has torn not only my generation, but also the older and younger generations from their previous lives and brought them down to the bloody ground.

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