Premium
Rescaling Regional Identities: Communicating Thick and Thin Regional Identities
Author(s) -
Terlouw Kees
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
studies in ethnicity and nationalism
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.204
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1754-9469
pISSN - 1473-8481
DOI - 10.1111/j.1754-9469.2009.01064.x
Subject(s) - identity (music) , autonomy , position (finance) , regional autonomy , face (sociological concept) , globalization , competition (biology) , economic geography , political science , cultural identity , sociology , regional science , business , geography , politics , social science , law , aesthetics , ecology , philosophy , finance , biology , negotiation
Novel forms of regional identities emerge in response to global competitive pressures and challenges to the nation‐state. Regions have to react and position their identity in relation to the rescaling of statehood. Especially, the growing autonomy of regional administrations makes support from local stakeholders more important. Communicating a specific regional identity is one of the instruments regional administrations use for mobilising support. However, at the same time old, traditional regional identities become more fluid. Regional identity traditionally focuses on shared past and specific social and cultural characteristics. Especially globalisation and individualisation undermine this traditional thick regional identity. Regional administrations have to adjust their communicated regional identity. By communicating the image of a future oriented region that can face the challenges of global competition, they increasingly use a thin regional identity. This paper analyses different case studies from the Netherlands and Germany.