Regional identity as a driver or a barrier in the process of regional development: A comparison of selected European experience

Abstract

The article contributes to the ‘new’ European regionalism by discussing the role that regional identity can play in regional development. It is based on the concept of ‘regional identity’ as the keystone of the institutionalization of the region and as consisting of two intertwined and complementary components: the regional consciousness of the inhabitants and the identity of a region. Through the heuristic study of relevant scholarly articles, the authors critically discuss six case studies from European countries dealing with the relationship between regional identity and regional development and published in the first decade of the new millennium. To date, research has examined the role of regional identity as both a successful and unsuccessful driver in regional development. From the case studies, a third possible role of regional identity is identified: regional identity as a barrier to regional development. Further, the article discusses the relationship between these three roles and attempts to identify factors causing the differentiation of the effects of regional identity in the context of regional development.

Keywords:

• barriers to development
• new regionalism
• regional development
• regional identity

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Veerle Van Eetvelde and the many participants of the PhD Winter School 2012 in Leuven as well as two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and suggestions. The article was prepared with financial support from the Czech Science Foundation (project P404/12/1112: Formation of Spatial Identities in Areas with Intensively Changed Landscape: The Case of North-Western Bohemia; and project P410/12/G113: Historical Geography Research Centre) as well as from the Charles University Grant Agency (project 632913: ‘Geosocial regionalization: general questions, methodological approaches and their verification’).