Regionalism
What makes a region?
Learning Objectives
• To explain different views on what makes a region
• To judge whether regional identities are real or imagined, natural or imposed
What makes a region?
Geography
• Regions may form a distinctive geographical area
• Can be identified by consulting maps• Leads to tendency to identify regions with
continents
Examples? Weaknesses?
Socio-cultural
• Regions can be based on similarities of religion, language, history or ideological belief
• A region may even be the geographical expression of a ‘civilisation’
Examples? Weaknesses?
Overlapping identities
• Regional identities are not simple– Multiple and overlapping• Mexico? (NAFTA, Central America, Latin America, APEC)
• Not mutually exclusive – and not incompatible with national identity
Political & Social constructs
• The region is an ‘imagined community’ (like nations)
• They are ideas – not concrete entities• Almost endlessly fluid– Change shape and size over time– Changing extent and purposes of cooperation
• Explains why regional identities are contested
Your nation state
• Invent a nation state and note down statistics and facts about it
• Using the example of your nation state – – What regional bodies would it belong to?– What purpose would they serve?– Would there be multiple, overlapping identities?
Regions as a popular idea?
• How much are regions a grassroots idea, coming from ‘the people’?
• How much are regions imposed from above?
NAFTA
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSXmB_my0ls
How does the film present NAFTA?Is this fair?
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