Region and Identity. The Perspective from Central Europe and the Balkans
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F26482789%3A_____%2F20%3AN0000097" target="_blank" >RIV/26482789:_____/20:N0000097 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5771/9783748901136" target="_blank" >http://dx.doi.org/10.5771/9783748901136</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5771/9783748901136" target="_blank" >10.5771/9783748901136</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Region and Identity. The Perspective from Central Europe and the Balkans
Original language description
The chapter focuses on the region-identity nexus in the social sciences and humanities. Identity is among the most important characteristics of regions, while regions often serve as generators of identity. The first part of the contribution presents a state-of-the-art analysis of the scholarly debate about regions as geographically, culturally, economically and socially determined organisational units, as well as the two ideal-typical approaches to identity studies in the social sciences and humanities: the essentialist and the constructivist. In the further analysis, the constructivist approach is preferred, as applied to the region-identity nexus. The analysis rests on a distinction between three regions created in the territory of Europe’s “historical” “East”: Central, Balkan, and Eastern Europe. In my perspective, these three sub-regions constitute East-Central Europe, a new region constructed as the “zone of big transformation” after 1989 and the fall of the Communist regimes. In the analysis I present Central Europe as a long-term semi-periphery catching up with the European West, while the Balkans and Eastern Europe represent the peripheral European regions bordering “non-Europe.” Specific characteristics related to identity are ascribed to all these regions as Auto- and Hetero-stereotypes. In the analysis I focus on both types of stereotypes and their interconnection with specific legacies. The metaphor of the “bridge” represents an important motive for the present analysis. As the alternative development strategies bringing the three regions closer together, I present the discussion about abandoning regional identity and merging with the West. In the final section, I turn to a discussion of the Auto-stereotype, stressing the positive role of East-Central Europe for potential European revitalisation as an important part of contemporary identity construction in East-Central Europe.
Czech name
—
Czech description
—
Classification
Type
C - Chapter in a specialist book
CEP classification
—
OECD FORD branch
50601 - Political science
Result continuities
Project
—
Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2020
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Book/collection name
The Visegrad Four and the Western Balkans. Framing Regional Identities
ISBN
978-3-8487-5999-6
Number of pages of the result
36
Pages from-to
25-60
Number of pages of the book
301
Publisher name
Nomos Verlag
Place of publication
Baden-Baden
UT code for WoS chapter
—