And we define ourselves in the contrast between ourselves and others.
Never during my 9 years in a Finnish school did I feel particularly Finnish. There were other people who spoke the language better, whose both parents were Finnish, who might even have been born there. In the Finnish school, I wasn’t particularly Finnish. But as soon as I started my Swedish high school, I became the Finnish girl. And I liked it. I identified more with my Finnish heritage when everyone else around me were Swedish.
And that’s how it is now. In Sweden, I often point out my Finnish heritage, because it gives me an explanation for why I feel different in certain aspects. But when I travel, when everyone else around me are neither Swedish nor Finnish, I morph into this purebred Swede – beause there, being Swedish is also special.
My identity as a geographer has been growing over the years, but never has it been as strong as when I left the Geoscience building at university for Stockholm Resilience Centre. There, all my classmates are biologists and economists and environmental scientists and suddenly knowing maps and thinking spatially gave me an edge. I became defined by what made me different from the rest.
This means identity depends at least partly on the situation we’re in, and the contrasts between us and the people around us. Today, I’m a Swedish-Finnish geographer – but tomorrow, who knows?
Katja Malmborg 