Reflexive Identity Narratives and Regional Legacies
Regions frame cultural traditions, meanings and performances but in relation to national imaginaries regions have asynchronous legacies that nourish their distinctiveness. While regions are a part of place-based, cultural vocabularies and patterns of everyday life, scholars have increasingly emphasi...
| Published in: | Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2015
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://vbn.aau.dk/da/publications/7ac9a458-6752-41e6-8994-03a14f566b87 https://doi.org/10.1111/tesg.12118 http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84958754426&partnerID=8YFLogxK |
| Summary: | Regions frame cultural traditions, meanings and performances but in relation to national imaginaries regions have asynchronous legacies that nourish their distinctiveness. While regions are a part of place-based, cultural vocabularies and patterns of everyday life, scholars have increasingly emphasised reflexive perceptions and challenged comprehensive and overarching regional identities. Drawing on 15 focus-group interviews with locally or universally-orientated civic organisation groups in two English counties (Cornwall and Devon) and two Finnish provinces (North Karelia and Southwest Finland), I analyse reflexive, stable and eclectic identifications with regional spaces and provide a typology for understanding archetypal and absorbed regional legacies and differently positioned ways of thinking. The results indicate that the social negotiation of identity discourses can contribute to a dialogue of inclusion, the formation of multiple identities and qualified senses of belonging. The paper highlights the importance of respecting different worldviews and life-paths in the analysis of culturally situated regional identities. |
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