Regionalism Without Regions

This collective volume shows how Ukraine can best be understood through its regions and how the regions must be considered against the background of the nation. The overarching objective of the book is to challenge the dominance of the nation-state paradigm in the analyses of Ukraine by illustrating the interrelationship between national and regional dynamics of change. The authors—historians, sociologists, anthropologists, economists, literary critics and linguists from Ukraine, Poland, Switzerland, Germany and the USA—explicitly go beyond the perspective of an entity defined by traditional political borders and cultural, economic, historical or religious stereotypes. The research project that led to the composition of the book combined quantitative (statistical surveys conducted across Ukraine) and qualitative (in-depth interviews and focus-group discussion) methods. The authors came to the conclusion that regionalism as a defining phenomenon of Ukraine is more prominent than the regions themselves. This approach regards Ukraine as a construct in flux where different discourses intersect, concur and eventually merge through the lenses of various disciplines and methodologies.

Regions are difficult to govern – coordinating policies across local jurisdictional boundaries in the absence of a formal regional government gives rise to enormous challenges. Yet some degree of coordination is almost always essential for local governments to effectively fulfill their responsibilities to their citizens. State and local governments have, over time, awkwardly, and with much experimenting, developed common approaches to regional governance. In this revolutionary new book, authors David Miller and Jen Nelles offer a new way to conceptualize those common approaches: Regional Intergovernmental Organizations (RIGOs) that bring together local governments to coordinate policies across jurisdictional boundaries. RIGOs are not governments themselves, but as Miller and Nelles demonstrate, they do have a measure of political authority that allows them to quietly and sometimes almost invisibly work to further regional interests and mitigate cross-boundary irritations. Providing a new conceptual framework for understanding how regional decision-making has emerged in the U.S., this book will provoke a new and rich era of discussion about American regionalism in theory and practice. Discovering American Regionalism will be a future classic in the study of intergovernmental relations, regionalism, and cross-boundary collaboration.

This book examines why regional identities are stronger in some regions than in others, and discusses the underlying causes of the mobilization of sub-state regions in Western Europe over the past fifty years.

This new international Handbook provides the reader with the most up-to-date and original viewpoints on critical debates relating to the rapidly transforming geographies of regions and territories, as well as related key concepts such as place, scale, networks and regionalism. Bringing together renowned specialists who have extensively theorized these spatial concepts and contributed to rich empirical research in disciplines such as geography, sociology, political science and IR studies, this interdisciplinary collection offers fresh, cutting-edge, and contextual insights on the significance of regions and territories in today’s dynamic world.

In reaction to the centralizing nation-building efforts of states in nineteenth-century Europe, many regions began to define their own identity. In thirteen stimulating essays, specialists analyze why regional identities became widely celebrated towards the end of that century and why some considered themselves part of the new national self-image.

Europe, Regions and European Regionalism examines the political role of regions and regionalism within contemporary Europe. Offering an up-to-date analysis of regionalism with a broad empirical scope, this book explores regions and regionalism in the period after the substantial enlargements of the European Union.

Southeastern Europe is often portrayed as an area plagued by endemic nationalisms, a view that seems to be confirmed by the break-up of Yugoslavia. However, a closer look shows that the nation is not the only territorial unit of identification. Regions play an important role as well, especially those that look back on traditions that differ from those of the national state. Thus, the end of socialism also brought forward regional movements which articulated opposition to the dominance of the centralized state. These developments are furthered by the integration into the European Union, whose policy of a "Europe of the Regions" demands strong regional centres for the administration of structural funds and for the empowerment of the regions. The contributions to this volume address the dynamics of regions, regionalism and regional identities in present Southeast Europe, but also look into the history of individual regions. They provide ample material for understanding the complex nature of territorial identification in this rapidly changing part of Europe.

Over the past few decades states all around the globe have intensified institutionalized cooperation at the regional level. To deepen our understanding of state-led regionalism, the authors use an analytical framework comprising four main strands. First, they describe and explain the genesis and growth of regional organizations. Second, they account for institutional design, looking at important similarities and differences. Third, they examine the interaction between organizations and member states in an attempt to reveal factors that shape the level of commitment to and compliance with regional initiatives. Finally, they consider the impact of regional organizations on their member states. They conclude by providing a foundation for future research on the dynamic development of regionalism.