Annual Research Programme - Regions and Regionalism in Europe and Beyond
Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YD, UK.
E-mail: ias@lancaster.ac.uk
Colloquium 1: What is a Region? Mythical and Historical Constructs of Regional Identity
2nd - 3rd November 2006
Read summary and download Colloquium Report
The question 'what constitutes a region?' implicitly challenges the assumption that regions have organic or 'natural' definitions. Whereas some regions can be identified as historically separate entities marked out by linguistic, religious or cultural identities, others have merged through political processes or economic locales.
Some regions have exploited geographical isolation to preserve or construct
a history of separatism, while others have been shaped by stronger states
on their borders.
This colloquium attempted to reconcile historical and current perspectives
of regionalism by examining themes such as:
- the role of regional cultures and mythic constructs of those cultures
- dominant/subaltern cultural relationships between 'centres' and 'peripheries'
- the self-articulation of regions through iconic imaging
- the significance of landscape and natural boundaries in defining regions
- regional linguistic vernaculars as cultural constructs of regions
- methodologies of scale: region or 'super-region'?
- the political deployment of regional government
- the role of settlement, wealth and land-holding in shaping a region's
identity
Speakers and Participants
Round-table discussion
Thursday 2nd November 2006
Practitioners from varied disciplines approach 'regionalism' from different perspectives. The ARP is designed to enable trans-disciplinary links between researchers investigating problems of regionalism, so that [a] a generic framework for studying regionalism as a problem can be devised, and [b] so that individual research projects dealing with 'regions' can be interrogated from a variety of perspectives. First, we need to establish what we are talking about when we use the terms 'region' and 'regionalism'. The first colloquium posed the question, 'What is a region?'
The coordinators invited all participants to give some thought before the colloquium to the following questions, which formed the basis of the round-table discussion on the afternoon of 2nd November:
- In the case of the region(s) with which you are most familiar, can you identify an historical process as a result of which the region(s) first becomes identifiable as a coherent entity?
- To what extent is a region's existence determined by its historical experience (i.e. conquest, outside domination, autonomy, specific commercial patterns)?
- Or by a well-defined cultural identity, such as language or religion?
- How has the projection and self-representation of a region's identity been shaped by what one might call 'creation myths' of the region's history?
- Do regions still rely on these in any ways for purposes other than those for which they were constructed (e.g. economic development)?
Answers to above questions from:
Postgraduate workshop
Friday 3rd November 2006
The workshop provided a platform for postgraduate research students at Lancaster to apply generic methods and approaches to issues of regional identities to their specific research. Current postgraduate research included: national and regional identities in Gibraltar, Turkey, and medieval northern England and Scotland; cultural identity in 20th century Lancashire; the poetry of landscape in 20th century Cumbria'.
Lancaster Co-ordinators
Andrew Jotischsky
(History)
E-mail: a.jotischky@lancaster.ac.uk
Sarah Barber
(History)
E-mail: s.barber@lancaster.ac.uk
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