Reflexive Identity Narratives and Regional Legacies

• Published in: Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie
• Main Author: Vainikka, Joni T.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: Finland; Focus groups; Reflexivity; Regional identity; South West England; Time; karelia*
• 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

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.