Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

This paper explores Oulu’s historical centre–periphery position, examining how townspeople in the 19th–20th centuries perceived their city. Focusing on tar from Kainuu, the study highlights how a hinterland product shaped Oulu’s economy, identity, and narratives of centrality and marginality.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines the emergence, evolution and negotiation of the centre–periphery divide in long-term urban historical perspective by focusing on the northern Finnish city. While Oulu has for centuries been officially referred to as the economic, administrative and cultural centre of northern Finland, it has simultaneously been perceived from the viewpoint of southern power centres as a distant periphery – a marginal northern outpost of the realm. This tension between centrality and marginality remains embedded in local identity and discourse.

The paper explores how the inhabitants of Oulu themselves positioned their city in relation to the rest of Finland and to Europe during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. How did they define and imagine their city? Was Oulu articulated as a centre or as a hinterland – and through which narratives and practices was such positioning constructed or contested?

A key element in this historical centre–periphery configuration is the significance of tar. The tar exported from Oulu to international markets was produced in the forests of Kainuu, a region which – from an Oulu perspective – could itself be viewed as a backcountry. Transported across vast stretches of roadless wilderness, this “black gold” was refined and commercialised in Oulu, becoming the city’s most important export commodity. Thus, a product of the hinterland became the cornerstone of urban prosperity and identity. The paper discusses how this paradox – a city defining itself through resources extracted from its own periphery – shaped public discourse and contributed to the historical self-understanding of Oulu.