Regional Planning and the Mobilization of ‘Regional Identity’: From Bounded Spaces to Relational Complexity

Abstract

Paasi A. Regional planning and the mobilization of ‘regional identity’: from bounded spaces to relational complexity, Regional Studies. Regional identity refers to the uniqueness of regions and/or to the identification of people with them. Having gained currency in planning and policy circles, the concept is increasingly related to regional competitiveness. Yet, it is unclear how regional identity is understood in planning terms. This paper suggests that this discursive ambiguousness derives from the fuzzy boundary between analysis and practice as well as from the context-bound character of identity discourse. A contextual geo-historical analysis is offered of the emergence of regional identity discourse in Finnish provinces. This provides a background for a study of how regional identity discourse is mobilized in strategic regional/provincial plans and how planners understand this term. These analyses show that the historical discourse on regional identity is at variance with the instrumental, visionary discourse of plans. Planners have diverging views on the roles of regional identity which also differ from the visionary views present in the plans.

Paasi A. 区域规划和 “区域认同” 的运用：从有限空间到复杂关系，区域研究。区域认同指区域的独特属性以及/或区域内居民的可辨识特征。此概念在规划和政策界得到广泛使用后，现多与区域竞争力相关。目前，如何从规划角度认识区域认同还没有明确的答案。本文认为，之所以存在这种含混不清的理解，一方面由于分析和实践之间界限模糊，另一方面是区域认同这一概念本身具有因地而异的特征。本文首先从历史地理的视角，针对芬兰各省关于区域认同讨论的出现进行了情景分析。并以此为背景，进一步分析了与区域认同相关的讨论如何被运用到区域/省份的战略规划中，以及规划师们如何理解区域认同的概念。上分析表明，历史视角下的区域认同与现实规划的手段和愿景之间具有一定的分歧。而规划师们对于区域认同在这一分歧中所起到的作用也有不同的看法。

区域认同 规划 论述 芬兰 竞争力

Paasi A. La planification régionale et la mobilisation de ‘l'identité régionale’: de l'espace bien délimité à la complexité relationnelle, Regional Studies. L'identité régionale fait allusion aux caractéristiques particulières des régions et/ou de leur identification avec certaines populations. La notion s'est répandue dans les milieux de la planification et de la politique et, par la suite, se rapporte de plus en plus à la compétitivité régionale. Cependant, on peut se demander comment on comprend l'identité régionale au niveau de la planification. Cet article laisse supposer que cette ambiguité discursive remonte à la frontière très floue entre l'analyse et la pratique aussi bien qu'au caractère relativisé du discours identitaire. On avance une analyse géographico-historique contextuelle de l’émergence du discours identitaire régionale dans les provinces en Finlande. Cela fournit un contexte qui permet d’étudier comment le discours identitaire régionale s'exprime dans les plans régionaux/provinciaux stratégiques et comment les planificateurs comprennent cette notion. Ces analyses laissent voir que le discours historique sur l'identité régionale est en désaccord avec le discours visionnaire primordial des plans. Les points de vue des planificateurs divergent quant aux rôles de l'identité régionale, qui se distinguent aussi des points de vue visionnaires exprimés dans les plans.

Identité régionale Planification Discours Finlande Compétitivité

Paasi A. Regionalplanung und die Mobilisierung der ‘regionalen Identität’: von abgegrenzten Räumen zur relationalen Komplexität, Regional Studies. Der Begriff der regionalen Identität bezieht sich auf die Unterscheidungsmerkmale von Regionen und/oder die Identifizierung der Bewohner mit ihnen. Dieses Konzept hat sich in Planungs- und Politikkreisen verbreitet und bezieht sich zunehmend auf die regionale Konkurrenzfähigkeit. Allerdings ist unklar, wie regionale Identität im Bereich der Planung aufzufassen ist. In diesem Beitrag wird die These aufgestellt, dass diese diskursive Mehrdeutigkeit auf die unklare Abgrenzung zwischen Analyse und Praxis sowie auf die kontextabhängige Beschaffenheit des Identitätsdiskurses zurückzuführen ist. Hinsichtlich des Entstehens eines Diskurses der regionalen Identität von finnischen Provinzen wird eine kontextuelle geohistorische Analyse vorgenommen. Diese Analyse bildet den Hintergrund zur Untersuchung der Frage, wie der Diskurs der regionalen Identität in strategischen Regional- bzw. Provinzialplänen mobilisiert wird und was Planer unter diesem Begriff verstehen. Aus den Analysen geht hervor, dass der historische Diskurs der regionalen Identität vom instrumentellen, visionären Diskurs der Pläne abweicht. Planer haben unterschiedliche Sichtweisen von den Rollen der regionalen Identität, die sich auch von den visionären Sichtweisen der Pläne unterscheiden.

Regionale Identität Planung Diskurs Finnland Konkurrenzfähigkeit

Paasi A. Planificación regional y la movilización de la ‘identidad regional’: de espacios delimitados a complejidad relacional, Regional Studies. El término de la identidad regional remite al carácter único de cada región y/o cómo se identifican las personas con ella. Este concepto que se ha extendido en los círculos de la planificación y la política, está cada vez más relacionado con la competitividad regional. Sin embargo, no queda claro cómo se entiende la identidad regional en términos de planificación. En este artículo sugerimos que esta ambigüedad discursiva procede de la difusa frontera entre el análisis y la práctica así como del carácter del discurso identitario definido por el contexto. Ofrecemos un análisis geohistórico contextual de la aparición del discurso de identidad regional en las provincias de Finlandia. Este análisis crea un contexto para estudiar cómo se moviliza el discurso de identidad regional en planes estratégicos regionales/provinciales y de qué modo entienden los planificadores este término. Estos análisis demuestran que el discurso histórico sobre la identidad regional se aparta del discurso instrumental y visionario de los planes. Los planificadores tienen opiniones divergentes sobre las funciones de la identidad regional que también difieren de las opiniones visionarias presentes en los planes.

Identidad regional Planificación Discurso Finlandia Competitividad

Keywords:

• Regional identity
• Planning
• Discourse
• Finland
• Competitiveness

JEL classifications:

• R58

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Academy of Finland (Project Number 140738). The author has greatly benefited from the comments of the anonymous referees, as well as those of Robert Crawshaw, Juho Luukkonen, Sami Moisio, John Tomaney, Joni Vainikka and Kaj Zimmerbauer. The usual disclaimers apply.

Notes

Terlouw's (2009) idea on thick and thin regional identities is also related to the time dimension. The former denotes traditional identities focusing on shared past and specific cultural characteristics. The latter points to (images of) future-oriented regions that face the challenges of global competition and which, for example, regional administrations try to communicate.

The semi-structured interviews of planners (six women and thirteen men) were carried out by the author in August–September 2009. They were tape-recorded and transcribed. When excerpts from the interviews are used, the names of respective RCs are omitted in order to maintain the anonymity of the interviewees.

Plans are prepared by the RCs in cooperation with regional actors operating in politics, in public, in private and in the Third Sector. Plans are thus results of coalition building used to accumulate competence and legitimacy, a feature that is typical in strategic planning (Healey, 2006). The plans are accepted by the delegates of the decision-making bodies of the RCs, who are political appointees of the member municipalities representing the results of municipal elections. The delegates have not been elected by voters as their regional representatives. Therefore, while in the rhetoric of the RCs the plans are frequently said to reflect the ‘will of the region’, this refers above all to the will of political, administrative and economic elites.

It is important to note that the phrase ‘regional identity’ (alueellinen identiteetti) has been absorbed into the Finnish language as a borrowing only in the 1970s. Before this period, identity discourse manifested itself in such phrases as ‘regionalism’ (maakuntahenki) or ‘individuality’ (omaleimaisuus) that denoted divergent ideas of nature, culture, ‘us’, the Other and human relations/social community that have been associated with regions.

For a detailed analysis of the emergence of regional stereotypes, their continuity and ruptures in spatial socialization in Finland, see Paasi (1984).

See http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docgener/informat/innovat_en.pdf/.

See note 3.

See note 3.

Itä-Uusimaa RC was merged with Uusimaa RC at the beginning of 2011, which reduced the number of RCs from nineteen to eighteen.

The English names of Pirkanmaa and Northern Ostro-Bothnia used in the names of RCs are now Tampere Region and Oulu Region, that is, they have been renamed after the capital (high-technology) cities of these provinces. This choice implies that in the international context the decision-makers increasingly think of the region as a brand rather than a mere provincial unit.

During the first decade of the new millennium, competition, city-regions and metropolitan thinking became global keywords (Scott and Storper, 2003; Brenner, 2004) and they soon spread into European regional policy. In the Finnish context this has led to neoliberal models in regional development and increasing concentration on metropolitan thinking (Moisio and Vasanen, 2008).

The importance of the local scale for the identification of citizens has been noted in several empirical studies in Finland (Zimmerbauer, 2002).