Dawn Brancati
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199549009
- eISBN:
- 9780191720307
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199549009.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics, International Relations and Politics
This chapter elaborates on the argument regarding how the effect of decentralization on intrastate conflict hinges on regional parties. Brancati argues that the negative effects typically associated ...
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This chapter elaborates on the argument regarding how the effect of decentralization on intrastate conflict hinges on regional parties. Brancati argues that the negative effects typically associated with decentralization are not an effect of decentralization directly, but that of regional parties. Specifically, it argues that regional parties create regional identities, advocate legislation that is harmful to other regions and regional minorities, and also mobilize groups to engage in ethnic conflict and secessionism and support extremist organizations that engage in these activities. The chapter also establishes in this chapter a number of conditions under which regional parties are likely to stimulate conflict and secessionism, and statewide parties are likely to reduce it. The chapter further argues that decentralization, in turn, increases the strength of regional parties depending on particular features of decentralization (i.e. the proportion of legislative seats a region possesses, the number of regional legislatures in a country, the upper house election procedures, the sequencing of national and regional elections). The chapter also offers a theoretical discussion in this chapter of the origins of decentralization and regional parties, arguing that neither is simply a product of the underlying ethnolinguistic, religious, and territorial differences in a country, but have an independent effect on these differences, and on conflict and secessionism.Less
This chapter elaborates on the argument regarding how the effect of decentralization on intrastate conflict hinges on regional parties. Brancati argues that the negative effects typically associated with decentralization are not an effect of decentralization directly, but that of regional parties. Specifically, it argues that regional parties create regional identities, advocate legislation that is harmful to other regions and regional minorities, and also mobilize groups to engage in ethnic conflict and secessionism and support extremist organizations that engage in these activities. The chapter also establishes in this chapter a number of conditions under which regional parties are likely to stimulate conflict and secessionism, and statewide parties are likely to reduce it. The chapter further argues that decentralization, in turn, increases the strength of regional parties depending on particular features of decentralization (i.e. the proportion of legislative seats a region possesses, the number of regional legislatures in a country, the upper house election procedures, the sequencing of national and regional elections). The chapter also offers a theoretical discussion in this chapter of the origins of decentralization and regional parties, arguing that neither is simply a product of the underlying ethnolinguistic, religious, and territorial differences in a country, but have an independent effect on these differences, and on conflict and secessionism.
Dawn Brancati
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199549009
- eISBN:
- 9780191720307
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199549009.003.0004
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics, International Relations and Politics
This chapter presents the case study of Spain (1976–present). Spain is widely respected as a successful case of decentralization, which has not only avoided conflict among the country's major ethnic ...
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This chapter presents the case study of Spain (1976–present). Spain is widely respected as a successful case of decentralization, which has not only avoided conflict among the country's major ethnic groups, but has also held secessionism at bay since Spain's transition to democracy in the late 1970s. This chapter attributes Spain's success to the relatively small presence of regional parties in the country, which have advocated legislation harmful to other regions in India and have supported violent separatist organizations in the country. This chapter attributes the party system to the structure of decentralization in Spain (i.e. the proportion of national legislative seats regions hold individually, the direct election of most of the country's upper house, and the appointment of Spain's first regional legislatures based on national level representation). This structure has reduced the incentive for politicians to form regional parties and prevented them from blocking the adoption of a new political system during the transition era as in Czechoslovakia. In teasing out the relationship between decentralization and regional parties, the chapter points out that statewide parties decentralized Spain in the transition period, and that regions with the strongest regional parties in Spain are not necessarily those that are economically or ethnolinguistically distinct, and that the distinct regions are not necessarily those with strong regional identities.Less
This chapter presents the case study of Spain (1976–present). Spain is widely respected as a successful case of decentralization, which has not only avoided conflict among the country's major ethnic groups, but has also held secessionism at bay since Spain's transition to democracy in the late 1970s. This chapter attributes Spain's success to the relatively small presence of regional parties in the country, which have advocated legislation harmful to other regions in India and have supported violent separatist organizations in the country. This chapter attributes the party system to the structure of decentralization in Spain (i.e. the proportion of national legislative seats regions hold individually, the direct election of most of the country's upper house, and the appointment of Spain's first regional legislatures based on national level representation). This structure has reduced the incentive for politicians to form regional parties and prevented them from blocking the adoption of a new political system during the transition era as in Czechoslovakia. In teasing out the relationship between decentralization and regional parties, the chapter points out that statewide parties decentralized Spain in the transition period, and that regions with the strongest regional parties in Spain are not necessarily those that are economically or ethnolinguistically distinct, and that the distinct regions are not necessarily those with strong regional identities.
Sebastian Balfour and Alejandro Quiroga
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199206674
- eISBN:
- 9780191709791
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199206674.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Modern History
Unravelling the debate about the Spanish nation and its identity in the new democracy, this book looks at the issue as both a historical debate and a contemporary political problem, made particularly ...
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Unravelling the debate about the Spanish nation and its identity in the new democracy, this book looks at the issue as both a historical debate and a contemporary political problem, made particularly complex by the legacy of the Francoist dictatorship, which deeply eroded the legitimacy of Spanish nationalism. During and since the transition, Spanish nationalist discourse has evolved to meet the challenge of new concepts of nation and identity. These formulations argue very different configurations of the relationship between nation and state. While the Constitution of 1978 defines Spain as a nation of nationalities, many politicians and intellectuals now claim that Spain is a nation of nations, others that it is a nation of nations and regions, or a post-traditional nation state, or post-national state. For the peripheral nationalists, it is merely a state of nations and regions. What is at issue is not whether Spain exists or not as a nation; rather, it is the traditional ways of seeing Spain from both the centre and the periphery that are being challenged. This book examines the ways in which Spanish and regional identities are projected and how they influence the external actions of the Spanish state. It also analyses the dynamic of comparative grievance and competition between regions deriving from the peculiar architecture of the state in Spain, and their effect on social and political cohesion. Finally, it examines scenarios of change that might foster solutions but asserts that Spain will continue to reinvent itself.Less
Unravelling the debate about the Spanish nation and its identity in the new democracy, this book looks at the issue as both a historical debate and a contemporary political problem, made particularly complex by the legacy of the Francoist dictatorship, which deeply eroded the legitimacy of Spanish nationalism. During and since the transition, Spanish nationalist discourse has evolved to meet the challenge of new concepts of nation and identity. These formulations argue very different configurations of the relationship between nation and state. While the Constitution of 1978 defines Spain as a nation of nationalities, many politicians and intellectuals now claim that Spain is a nation of nations, others that it is a nation of nations and regions, or a post-traditional nation state, or post-national state. For the peripheral nationalists, it is merely a state of nations and regions. What is at issue is not whether Spain exists or not as a nation; rather, it is the traditional ways of seeing Spain from both the centre and the periphery that are being challenged. This book examines the ways in which Spanish and regional identities are projected and how they influence the external actions of the Spanish state. It also analyses the dynamic of comparative grievance and competition between regions deriving from the peculiar architecture of the state in Spain, and their effect on social and political cohesion. Finally, it examines scenarios of change that might foster solutions but asserts that Spain will continue to reinvent itself.
Thorlac Turville-Petre
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198122791
- eISBN:
- 9780191671548
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198122791.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This book pays attention to the earlier fourteenth century in England as a literary period in its own right. It surveys the wide range of writings by the generation before Geoffrey Chaucer, and ...
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This book pays attention to the earlier fourteenth century in England as a literary period in its own right. It surveys the wide range of writings by the generation before Geoffrey Chaucer, and explores how English writers in the half-century leading up to the outbreak of the Hundred Years War expressed their concepts of England as a nation, and how they exploited the association between nation, people, and language. At the centre of this work is a study of the construction of national identity that takes place in the histories written in English. The contributions of romances and saints' lives to an awareness of the nation's past are also considered, as is the question of how writers were able to reconcile their sense of regional identity with commitment to the nation. A final chapter explores the interrelationship between England's three languages, Latin, French and English, at a time when English was attaining the status of the national language. Middle English quotations are translated into modern English throughout.Less
This book pays attention to the earlier fourteenth century in England as a literary period in its own right. It surveys the wide range of writings by the generation before Geoffrey Chaucer, and explores how English writers in the half-century leading up to the outbreak of the Hundred Years War expressed their concepts of England as a nation, and how they exploited the association between nation, people, and language. At the centre of this work is a study of the construction of national identity that takes place in the histories written in English. The contributions of romances and saints' lives to an awareness of the nation's past are also considered, as is the question of how writers were able to reconcile their sense of regional identity with commitment to the nation. A final chapter explores the interrelationship between England's three languages, Latin, French and English, at a time when English was attaining the status of the national language. Middle English quotations are translated into modern English throughout.
Jeffrey Kopstein
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199241149
- eISBN:
- 9780191598920
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199241147.003.0009
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
Examines one effect of globalization on labour in the case of unified Germany: the rise of a new particularism. A number of scholars have started to speak of the new divide between eastern and ...
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Examines one effect of globalization on labour in the case of unified Germany: the rise of a new particularism. A number of scholars have started to speak of the new divide between eastern and western Germany in terms of ethnicity. As useful as this analogy is, however, it has the disadvantage of being just that—an analogy. Seen differently, the source of the new cultural divide in Germany is the conflict between two very different, historically shaped moral economies. Despite Stalinist misdevelopment, the economy of the communist East, through everyday labour practices, inculcated a set of egalitarian economic values. For political reasons, the unification strategy after 1991 did not challenge these values but accommodated them. Such a strategy thus guaranteed the persistence and even growth of regional identities in post‐unification Germany. The new particularism in other locales, therefore, may stem from the clash not only of ‘civilizations’ (Huntington), but also, rather more prosaically, from the conflict between dominant labour and leisure practices, of notions of what is properly commodified and what is best put outside of markets—practices that are being challenged by global markets, and the diffusion of tastes, values, and institutions.Less
Examines one effect of globalization on labour in the case of unified Germany: the rise of a new particularism. A number of scholars have started to speak of the new divide between eastern and western Germany in terms of ethnicity. As useful as this analogy is, however, it has the disadvantage of being just that—an analogy. Seen differently, the source of the new cultural divide in Germany is the conflict between two very different, historically shaped moral economies. Despite Stalinist misdevelopment, the economy of the communist East, through everyday labour practices, inculcated a set of egalitarian economic values. For political reasons, the unification strategy after 1991 did not challenge these values but accommodated them. Such a strategy thus guaranteed the persistence and even growth of regional identities in post‐unification Germany. The new particularism in other locales, therefore, may stem from the clash not only of ‘civilizations’ (Huntington), but also, rather more prosaically, from the conflict between dominant labour and leisure practices, of notions of what is properly commodified and what is best put outside of markets—practices that are being challenged by global markets, and the diffusion of tastes, values, and institutions.
Gianluca Raccagni
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264713
- eISBN:
- 9780191734847
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264713.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
The Lombard League was an association created by the city republics of northern Italy in the 12th century in order to defend their autonomy and that of the papacy in a struggle against the German ...
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The Lombard League was an association created by the city republics of northern Italy in the 12th century in order to defend their autonomy and that of the papacy in a struggle against the German Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. The League has enjoyed an iconic status, and in the nineteenth century was glorified as a precursor of the Italian struggle for independence in political and historical pamphlets as well as in paintings, novels, and even operas. The League played a crucial role in the evolution of Italy’s political landscape, but it did more than ensure its continued fragmentation. Historiography, in fact, has overlooked the collegial cooperation among the medieval Italian polities and this volume examines the League’s structure, activity, place in political thought, and links with regional identities. Using documentary evidence, histories, letters, inscriptions, and contemporary troubadour poems as well as rhetorical and juridical treatises, the book argues that the League was not just a momentary anti-imperial military alliance, but a body that also provided collective approaches to regional problems, ranging from the peaceful resolution of disputes to the management of regional lines of communication, usurping, in some cases, imperial prerogatives. Yet the League never rejected imperial overlordship per se, and this book explains how it survived after the end of the conflict against Frederick I, one of its most lasting legacies being the settlement that it reached with the empire, the Peace of Constance, which became the Magna Carta of the northern Italian polities.Less
The Lombard League was an association created by the city republics of northern Italy in the 12th century in order to defend their autonomy and that of the papacy in a struggle against the German Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. The League has enjoyed an iconic status, and in the nineteenth century was glorified as a precursor of the Italian struggle for independence in political and historical pamphlets as well as in paintings, novels, and even operas. The League played a crucial role in the evolution of Italy’s political landscape, but it did more than ensure its continued fragmentation. Historiography, in fact, has overlooked the collegial cooperation among the medieval Italian polities and this volume examines the League’s structure, activity, place in political thought, and links with regional identities. Using documentary evidence, histories, letters, inscriptions, and contemporary troubadour poems as well as rhetorical and juridical treatises, the book argues that the League was not just a momentary anti-imperial military alliance, but a body that also provided collective approaches to regional problems, ranging from the peaceful resolution of disputes to the management of regional lines of communication, usurping, in some cases, imperial prerogatives. Yet the League never rejected imperial overlordship per se, and this book explains how it survived after the end of the conflict against Frederick I, one of its most lasting legacies being the settlement that it reached with the empire, the Peace of Constance, which became the Magna Carta of the northern Italian polities.
Irad Malkin
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199734818
- eISBN:
- 9780199918553
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199734818.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, World History: BCE to 500CE, European History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter provides the background to applying “network” as a heuristic concept to historical interpretation. Greek colonization dotted the coasts of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea with ...
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This chapter provides the background to applying “network” as a heuristic concept to historical interpretation. Greek colonization dotted the coasts of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea with distant settlements that served as network nodes; with greater distance came fewer degrees of separation and the overall connectivity that, in terms of “small worlds,” allowed for Greek commonalities to disseminate and for Greek civilization to appear as a self-emergent phenomenon in a complex system. Physical divergence brought about cultural convergence. The chapter discusses the universality of network approaches; its contemporary implications; its place in the spatial turn, combining historical with geographical notions; Mediterranean historiography (Braudel, Goitein, Horden, and Purcell); The reversal of our cognitive maps (denying the role of centers vs. backwaters and observing “Greece” via a wide-angle lens); the role of individual “connectors”; the emergence of regional identities; middle grounds and colonial clusters; network and Mediterranean city-state culture (with Phoenicians and Etruscans); the role of colonization; and the formation of the Greek convergence.Less
This chapter provides the background to applying “network” as a heuristic concept to historical interpretation. Greek colonization dotted the coasts of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea with distant settlements that served as network nodes; with greater distance came fewer degrees of separation and the overall connectivity that, in terms of “small worlds,” allowed for Greek commonalities to disseminate and for Greek civilization to appear as a self-emergent phenomenon in a complex system. Physical divergence brought about cultural convergence. The chapter discusses the universality of network approaches; its contemporary implications; its place in the spatial turn, combining historical with geographical notions; Mediterranean historiography (Braudel, Goitein, Horden, and Purcell); The reversal of our cognitive maps (denying the role of centers vs. backwaters and observing “Greece” via a wide-angle lens); the role of individual “connectors”; the emergence of regional identities; middle grounds and colonial clusters; network and Mediterranean city-state culture (with Phoenicians and Etruscans); the role of colonization; and the formation of the Greek convergence.
Irad Malkin
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199734818
- eISBN:
- 9780199918553
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199734818.003.0003
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, World History: BCE to 500CE, European History: BCE to 500CE
In contrast to Rhodes and its back-ripple effect, setting out from different origins, Greeks (Dorians and Ionians from different places) converged on Sicily, where they developed a “positive” ...
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In contrast to Rhodes and its back-ripple effect, setting out from different origins, Greeks (Dorians and Ionians from different places) converged on Sicily, where they developed a “positive” collective identity (not as a contrast to non-Greeks) based on their common historical experience as colonists on the new regional-island identity (Sikeliôtai) and on ritual articulations in relation to Delphi. With foundation prophecies Delphi was perceived (as common in Greek colonization) as corollary to the mother city and thus common to all. It was also the destination of a common Sikeliote sacred embassy (theoria) that would commonly set out from the altar of Apollo Archêgetês, situated by the symbolically important “first colony” in Sicily (Naxos), indicating the opening up of a new land for Greek settlement and enmeshing Sikeliote Greeks in Panhellenic networks.Less
In contrast to Rhodes and its back-ripple effect, setting out from different origins, Greeks (Dorians and Ionians from different places) converged on Sicily, where they developed a “positive” collective identity (not as a contrast to non-Greeks) based on their common historical experience as colonists on the new regional-island identity (Sikeliôtai) and on ritual articulations in relation to Delphi. With foundation prophecies Delphi was perceived (as common in Greek colonization) as corollary to the mother city and thus common to all. It was also the destination of a common Sikeliote sacred embassy (theoria) that would commonly set out from the altar of Apollo Archêgetês, situated by the symbolically important “first colony” in Sicily (Naxos), indicating the opening up of a new land for Greek settlement and enmeshing Sikeliote Greeks in Panhellenic networks.
Tom Scott
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206446
- eISBN:
- 9780191677120
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206446.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, Economic History
Much of the force of contemporary regionalism in Europe derives from its critique of a hegemonic political culture which characterizes states without a devolved structure of power. There is now a ...
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Much of the force of contemporary regionalism in Europe derives from its critique of a hegemonic political culture which characterizes states without a devolved structure of power. There is now a widespread perception that only a regional framework for political, cultural, and economic activity can overcome the rigidities of the nation-state or, for that matter, of bureaucratic centralism in Brussels. This book investigates whether a sense of regional identity, defined by economic criteria, can be discerned on the southern Upper Rhine in the period from the mid-fifteenth to the late sixteenth century. It examines whether natural regions and frontiers exist at all, and if so, how they should be defined. It also considers the economic structure of the Upper Rhine in the light of competition over resources and their distribution. It applies theories of centrality to see whether they can explain the incidence of rural competition in crafts and marketing for the traditional urban centres.Less
Much of the force of contemporary regionalism in Europe derives from its critique of a hegemonic political culture which characterizes states without a devolved structure of power. There is now a widespread perception that only a regional framework for political, cultural, and economic activity can overcome the rigidities of the nation-state or, for that matter, of bureaucratic centralism in Brussels. This book investigates whether a sense of regional identity, defined by economic criteria, can be discerned on the southern Upper Rhine in the period from the mid-fifteenth to the late sixteenth century. It examines whether natural regions and frontiers exist at all, and if so, how they should be defined. It also considers the economic structure of the Upper Rhine in the light of competition over resources and their distribution. It applies theories of centrality to see whether they can explain the incidence of rural competition in crafts and marketing for the traditional urban centres.
Alistair Cole
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719070921
- eISBN:
- 9781781701362
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719070921.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics
This chapter presents findings from opinion surveys commissioned in Wales and Brittany in June 2001 in order to engage in deductive quantitative analysis. Defining support for regional political ...
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This chapter presents findings from opinion surveys commissioned in Wales and Brittany in June 2001 in order to engage in deductive quantitative analysis. Defining support for regional political institutions as the dependent variable, the surveys set out to elucidate general comparative political-science questions about institutional traditions, identity foci, instrumental incentives, and political opportunity structures. These surveys were also, more specifically, designed to discover what people living in Wales and Brittany think of their regions, how they envisage their future institutional development, how they conceive of their regional and national identities, or how they frame issues of public policy.Less
This chapter presents findings from opinion surveys commissioned in Wales and Brittany in June 2001 in order to engage in deductive quantitative analysis. Defining support for regional political institutions as the dependent variable, the surveys set out to elucidate general comparative political-science questions about institutional traditions, identity foci, instrumental incentives, and political opportunity structures. These surveys were also, more specifically, designed to discover what people living in Wales and Brittany think of their regions, how they envisage their future institutional development, how they conceive of their regional and national identities, or how they frame issues of public policy.
Tom Scott
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206446
- eISBN:
- 9780191677120
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206446.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, Economic History
From 1300 onwards the shifting balance of political and military fortunes on the Upper Rhine had fostered the growth of regional solidarity. The requirements of public peace on the western frontiers ...
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From 1300 onwards the shifting balance of political and military fortunes on the Upper Rhine had fostered the growth of regional solidarity. The requirements of public peace on the western frontiers of the Empire found their expression in the many defensive treaties which bound local lords and cities together. Yet a sense of positive solidarity, grounded in the perception of enduring common interests, had also emerged in the two centuries before 1500. Its most obvious manifestation was the transformation of the Rappen coinage league from a loose association stretching well into Switzerland to a coinage area restricted to the southern Upper Rhine, whose boundaries were defined more by geography and commerce than by ties of lordship. The rise of confessional divisions gave an added twist to the intricacies of dynastic politics. By 1600, a sense of regional identity on the southern Upper Rhine had neither collapsed nor disappeared — but it had become progressively fractured in the face of territorial and confessional politics.Less
From 1300 onwards the shifting balance of political and military fortunes on the Upper Rhine had fostered the growth of regional solidarity. The requirements of public peace on the western frontiers of the Empire found their expression in the many defensive treaties which bound local lords and cities together. Yet a sense of positive solidarity, grounded in the perception of enduring common interests, had also emerged in the two centuries before 1500. Its most obvious manifestation was the transformation of the Rappen coinage league from a loose association stretching well into Switzerland to a coinage area restricted to the southern Upper Rhine, whose boundaries were defined more by geography and commerce than by ties of lordship. The rise of confessional divisions gave an added twist to the intricacies of dynastic politics. By 1600, a sense of regional identity on the southern Upper Rhine had neither collapsed nor disappeared — but it had become progressively fractured in the face of territorial and confessional politics.
Tom Scott
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206446
- eISBN:
- 9780191677120
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206446.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History, Economic History
The current debate about the best methods of European organization — central or regional — is influenced by an awareness of regional identity, which offers an alternative to the rigidities of ...
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The current debate about the best methods of European organization — central or regional — is influenced by an awareness of regional identity, which offers an alternative to the rigidities of organization by nation-state. Yet where does the sense of regionalism come from? What are the distinctive factors that transform a geographical area into a particular ‘region’? This book addresses these questions in this study of one apparently ‘natural’ region — the Upper Rhine — between 1450 and 1600. This region has been divided between three countries and so historically marginalized, yet this book is able to trace the existence of a sense of historical regional identity cutting across national frontiers, founded on common economic interests. But that identity was always contingent and precarious, neither ‘natural’ nor immutable.Less
The current debate about the best methods of European organization — central or regional — is influenced by an awareness of regional identity, which offers an alternative to the rigidities of organization by nation-state. Yet where does the sense of regionalism come from? What are the distinctive factors that transform a geographical area into a particular ‘region’? This book addresses these questions in this study of one apparently ‘natural’ region — the Upper Rhine — between 1450 and 1600. This region has been divided between three countries and so historically marginalized, yet this book is able to trace the existence of a sense of historical regional identity cutting across national frontiers, founded on common economic interests. But that identity was always contingent and precarious, neither ‘natural’ nor immutable.
Ian Breward
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198263562
- eISBN:
- 9780191600418
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198263562.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
Roman Catholicism emerged as the largest denomination in the region, while Protestant dominance was seriously weakened by a variety of factors. The 1960s and 1970s were a time of significant ...
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Roman Catholicism emerged as the largest denomination in the region, while Protestant dominance was seriously weakened by a variety of factors. The 1960s and 1970s were a time of significant transition and modernization. Migration brought the great world religions to the region, along with multiculturalism, challenging the exclusive faith claims of the churches. Regional Christianity has developed distinctive features of toleration, compassion, concern for social justice, missionary energy and a democratic spirit.Less
Roman Catholicism emerged as the largest denomination in the region, while Protestant dominance was seriously weakened by a variety of factors. The 1960s and 1970s were a time of significant transition and modernization. Migration brought the great world religions to the region, along with multiculturalism, challenging the exclusive faith claims of the churches. Regional Christianity has developed distinctive features of toleration, compassion, concern for social justice, missionary energy and a democratic spirit.
Emily Satterwhite
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780813130101
- eISBN:
- 9780813135854
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813130101.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This final chapter speculates that Appalachia may be commodified in ways that have the potential to undermine the region as a tool to critique dominant assumptions. The first section, “The Production ...
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This final chapter speculates that Appalachia may be commodified in ways that have the potential to undermine the region as a tool to critique dominant assumptions. The first section, “The Production of Regional Identity,” discusses the relationship between regional fiction and the construction of regionalism. Readers' testimonies, alongside maps of mobile readers' geographic trajectories, indicate that the role of regional fiction is to produce readers who learn to feel regionally. Migration frequently provoked among white Americans a sense of deep estrangement that they turned to fiction to ameliorate. Readers' mobility in effect produced a market for regional fiction which in turn produced regional identity. The second section, “Romancing Appalachia,” urges the critique of popular celebratory representations of the region, arguing that they frequently code Appalachia as a simple, racially innocent, disadvantaged, “pure” Anglo-Saxon, and white ethnic community. For some Americans, romance with Appalachia is a romance with simple authentic white folk that may reinforce nativism, xenophobia, white nationalism, and the patronization of culturalized and racialized groups domestically and internationally.Less
This final chapter speculates that Appalachia may be commodified in ways that have the potential to undermine the region as a tool to critique dominant assumptions. The first section, “The Production of Regional Identity,” discusses the relationship between regional fiction and the construction of regionalism. Readers' testimonies, alongside maps of mobile readers' geographic trajectories, indicate that the role of regional fiction is to produce readers who learn to feel regionally. Migration frequently provoked among white Americans a sense of deep estrangement that they turned to fiction to ameliorate. Readers' mobility in effect produced a market for regional fiction which in turn produced regional identity. The second section, “Romancing Appalachia,” urges the critique of popular celebratory representations of the region, arguing that they frequently code Appalachia as a simple, racially innocent, disadvantaged, “pure” Anglo-Saxon, and white ethnic community. For some Americans, romance with Appalachia is a romance with simple authentic white folk that may reinforce nativism, xenophobia, white nationalism, and the patronization of culturalized and racialized groups domestically and internationally.
Hester Barron
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199575046
- eISBN:
- 9780191722196
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199575046.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This chapter explores the boundaries of region and social class that defined the identity of the Durham miner in the 1920s, and how this affected the positions adopted and choices made in 1926. It ...
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This chapter explores the boundaries of region and social class that defined the identity of the Durham miner in the 1920s, and how this affected the positions adopted and choices made in 1926. It assesses the strength of the occupational community, examining the dominance of mining in County Durham, and the relationships of the miners with other social and occupational groups, particularly during the general strike. Sections are devoted to the middle classes, shopkeepers, and the police. It then considers geographical identities, investigating the degree of mobility both within and outside of county boundaries. It analyses the miners' sense of national belonging, particularly with regard to memories of the First World War, and the relationship between the DMA and MFGB.Less
This chapter explores the boundaries of region and social class that defined the identity of the Durham miner in the 1920s, and how this affected the positions adopted and choices made in 1926. It assesses the strength of the occupational community, examining the dominance of mining in County Durham, and the relationships of the miners with other social and occupational groups, particularly during the general strike. Sections are devoted to the middle classes, shopkeepers, and the police. It then considers geographical identities, investigating the degree of mobility both within and outside of county boundaries. It analyses the miners' sense of national belonging, particularly with regard to memories of the First World War, and the relationship between the DMA and MFGB.
Jonathan R. W. Prag
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199652143
- eISBN:
- 9780191745935
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199652143.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE, Archaeology: Classical
This chapter starts from an Attic funerary stele recording one Sōtērēs Sikeliōtis, and the issues this text raises about regional identities. The investigation of the nature and significance of ...
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This chapter starts from an Attic funerary stele recording one Sōtērēs Sikeliōtis, and the issues this text raises about regional identities. The investigation of the nature and significance of Sicilian identity in the fifth century bc has based primarily on the distinction between Sikel (‘indigenous Sicilian’) and Sikeliote (‘Greek colonist in Sicily’): considerable weight has been placed on Diodorus and the claim therein for the universalization over time of the term Sikeliote, and on more internal issues of Doric and Ionian within the Greek colonial world, on the back of Thucydides' account of the Sicilian expedition. The chapter expands the evidential and chronological scope of the relevant discussion, looking at the use of ‘Sicilian’ in public and private epigraphic sources, subverting the claim of Diodorus, but also raising questions about the existence of a regional, supra-polis identity. The form ‘Sicilian from X polis’ emerges as a regular classification, visible in Latin as well as Greek. Polis ethnics used by Sicilians abroad suggest that this ‘Sicilian’ identity was at least as dominant as that of any individual polis, other than Syracuse. This study also explores the question of whether a more general historical context can be elucidated for the development of such a seemingly unusual regional ethnic, which coincidentally became a political unit in the third century bc, in the form of a Roman provincial. The relevance of that political unit and the impact of Rome are considered as significant factors in the development of a regional identity. The concurrent development of the personification of ‘Sikelia’ is also explored, together with the apparently vital flourishing civic environment of Sicily under Roman Republican rule.Less
This chapter starts from an Attic funerary stele recording one Sōtērēs Sikeliōtis, and the issues this text raises about regional identities. The investigation of the nature and significance of Sicilian identity in the fifth century bc has based primarily on the distinction between Sikel (‘indigenous Sicilian’) and Sikeliote (‘Greek colonist in Sicily’): considerable weight has been placed on Diodorus and the claim therein for the universalization over time of the term Sikeliote, and on more internal issues of Doric and Ionian within the Greek colonial world, on the back of Thucydides' account of the Sicilian expedition. The chapter expands the evidential and chronological scope of the relevant discussion, looking at the use of ‘Sicilian’ in public and private epigraphic sources, subverting the claim of Diodorus, but also raising questions about the existence of a regional, supra-polis identity. The form ‘Sicilian from X polis’ emerges as a regular classification, visible in Latin as well as Greek. Polis ethnics used by Sicilians abroad suggest that this ‘Sicilian’ identity was at least as dominant as that of any individual polis, other than Syracuse. This study also explores the question of whether a more general historical context can be elucidated for the development of such a seemingly unusual regional ethnic, which coincidentally became a political unit in the third century bc, in the form of a Roman provincial. The relevance of that political unit and the impact of Rome are considered as significant factors in the development of a regional identity. The concurrent development of the personification of ‘Sikelia’ is also explored, together with the apparently vital flourishing civic environment of Sicily under Roman Republican rule.
Wendy Griswold
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226309224
- eISBN:
- 9780226309262
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226309262.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Culture
This chapter shows that literary regionalism flourishes only where there are both regional collective identity and institutional support. It attempts to sort out the claims of the experiential and ...
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This chapter shows that literary regionalism flourishes only where there are both regional collective identity and institutional support. It attempts to sort out the claims of the experiential and institutionalist views by asking, can resource flows in and of themselves create and sustain regionalism? The empirical focus is on Norway and the United States, both of which experienced a dramatic increase in state literary support in the mid-1960s. These two developments are totally independent of each other and they allow the examination of several decades of state literary patronage in two different national contexts. So the question is: what difference has state patronage made for literary regionalism?Less
This chapter shows that literary regionalism flourishes only where there are both regional collective identity and institutional support. It attempts to sort out the claims of the experiential and institutionalist views by asking, can resource flows in and of themselves create and sustain regionalism? The empirical focus is on Norway and the United States, both of which experienced a dramatic increase in state literary support in the mid-1960s. These two developments are totally independent of each other and they allow the examination of several decades of state literary patronage in two different national contexts. So the question is: what difference has state patronage made for literary regionalism?
Claudio Lomnitz-Adler
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520077881
- eISBN:
- 9780520912472
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520077881.003.0003
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Latin American Cultural Anthropology
This chapter provides a description and an analysis of culture and cultural interaction in Morelos and the Huasteca. The regional ethnography of these two regions is specifically covered. It then ...
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This chapter provides a description and an analysis of culture and cultural interaction in Morelos and the Huasteca. The regional ethnography of these two regions is specifically covered. It then explores some of the general features of Morelos and the Huasteca Potosina. Morelos and the Huasteca Potosina are chosen because of meaningful contrasts in their regional organizations. The Huastecan Revolution does not coincide with the official, or even the dominant academic, characterizations of the motives, leadership, and participants of the “Mexican” Revolution. The oblivion in which Huastecan culture and history has been thrust has its counterpoint in the inclusion of the region as part of the rich background, the reserve wealth, of the nation. Furthermore, the chapter elucidates the general understanding of the spaces for Morelos' regional identity and their relation to the construction of national identity.Less
This chapter provides a description and an analysis of culture and cultural interaction in Morelos and the Huasteca. The regional ethnography of these two regions is specifically covered. It then explores some of the general features of Morelos and the Huasteca Potosina. Morelos and the Huasteca Potosina are chosen because of meaningful contrasts in their regional organizations. The Huastecan Revolution does not coincide with the official, or even the dominant academic, characterizations of the motives, leadership, and participants of the “Mexican” Revolution. The oblivion in which Huastecan culture and history has been thrust has its counterpoint in the inclusion of the region as part of the rich background, the reserve wealth, of the nation. Furthermore, the chapter elucidates the general understanding of the spaces for Morelos' regional identity and their relation to the construction of national identity.
M.K. Raghavendra
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780198071587
- eISBN:
- 9780199080793
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198071587.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Film, Media, and Cultural Studies
The first comprehensive inquiry into the origin and growth of regional language cinema in India, this book traces the development of Kannada cinema from the 1940s to the new millennium. Focusing on ...
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The first comprehensive inquiry into the origin and growth of regional language cinema in India, this book traces the development of Kannada cinema from the 1940s to the new millennium. Focusing on the role regional language cinema plays, the book examines the conflict between the ‘region’ and the ‘nation’ in the regional consciousness. It explores how its origin in a princely state under indirect British rule had an impact on the shaping of Kannada cinema, and inquiries into the effect of the linguistic reorganization of the states in the 1950s upon regional identity. Exploring the influence of national developments—from the ascendancy of Indira Gandhi in the 1960s to economic liberalization in the 1990s—on regional identity, the book provides first-time assessments of the Kannada star Rajkumar as a regional icon and the changing meaning of Bangalore city to the Kannada-speaking public.Less
The first comprehensive inquiry into the origin and growth of regional language cinema in India, this book traces the development of Kannada cinema from the 1940s to the new millennium. Focusing on the role regional language cinema plays, the book examines the conflict between the ‘region’ and the ‘nation’ in the regional consciousness. It explores how its origin in a princely state under indirect British rule had an impact on the shaping of Kannada cinema, and inquiries into the effect of the linguistic reorganization of the states in the 1950s upon regional identity. Exploring the influence of national developments—from the ascendancy of Indira Gandhi in the 1960s to economic liberalization in the 1990s—on regional identity, the book provides first-time assessments of the Kannada star Rajkumar as a regional icon and the changing meaning of Bangalore city to the Kannada-speaking public.
Rebecca M. Bodenheimer
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781628462395
- eISBN:
- 9781626746886
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628462395.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Ethnomusicology, World Music
Derived from the nationalist writings of José Martí, the concept of Cubanidad (Cubanness) has always imagined a unified hybrid nation where racial difference is nonexistent and nationality trumps all ...
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Derived from the nationalist writings of José Martí, the concept of Cubanidad (Cubanness) has always imagined a unified hybrid nation where racial difference is nonexistent and nationality trumps all other axes of identity. Scholars have critiqued this celebration of racial mixture, highlighting a gap between the claim of racial harmony and the realities of inequality faced by Afro-Cubans since Independence in 1898. This book argues that it is not only the recognition of racial difference that threatens to divide the nation, but that popular regional sentiment further contests the hegemonic nationalist discourse. Given that music is a prominent symbol of Cubanidad, musical practices play an important role in constructing regional and local, as well as national, identities, and the book thus suggests that regional identity exerts a significant influence on the aesthetic choices Cuban musicians make. Through the examination of several genres, the book explores the various ways that race and the politics of place are entangled in contemporary Cuban music-making. It argues that racialized discourses that circulate about different cities affect both the formation of local identity and musical performance. Thus, the musical practices discussed—including rumba, timba, eastern Cuban folklore, and son—are examples of the intersections between regional identity formation, racialized notions of place, and music-making.Less
Derived from the nationalist writings of José Martí, the concept of Cubanidad (Cubanness) has always imagined a unified hybrid nation where racial difference is nonexistent and nationality trumps all other axes of identity. Scholars have critiqued this celebration of racial mixture, highlighting a gap between the claim of racial harmony and the realities of inequality faced by Afro-Cubans since Independence in 1898. This book argues that it is not only the recognition of racial difference that threatens to divide the nation, but that popular regional sentiment further contests the hegemonic nationalist discourse. Given that music is a prominent symbol of Cubanidad, musical practices play an important role in constructing regional and local, as well as national, identities, and the book thus suggests that regional identity exerts a significant influence on the aesthetic choices Cuban musicians make. Through the examination of several genres, the book explores the various ways that race and the politics of place are entangled in contemporary Cuban music-making. It argues that racialized discourses that circulate about different cities affect both the formation of local identity and musical performance. Thus, the musical practices discussed—including rumba, timba, eastern Cuban folklore, and son—are examples of the intersections between regional identity formation, racialized notions of place, and music-making.
