CONFLICT AND COMPROMISE AMONG BORDERLAND IDENTITIES IN NORTHERN ITALY DAVID H. KAPLAN Department of Geography, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242, USA. E-mail: dkaplan@kent.edu Received: May 1999; revised September 1999 ABSTRACT Borderlands are dominated by the interplay, overlap and competition of larger national identities. This paper examines the interaction of separate national, regional and local identities in two borderland regions of Northern Italy: the Alto-Adige/Su Èdtirol region and the Julian region (which includes the city of Trieste). The main argument is that the histories of these two borderland regions have rendered a mixture of incompatible identities. While these identities continue to rival one another, there is a possibility that changes in ethnic attitudes and macro- developments, including the strengthening of the European Union, may allow for the creation of a distinct borderland identity. This identity would exist in conjunction with the identities that exist at larger and smaller spatial scales. Key words: Nationalism, Italy, borderlands, identity Today, national identity occupies the apex of an identificational hierarchy. The resurgence of nationalist movements around the globe would seem to ratify Emerson's (1960, pp. 95±96) precept that the nation transcends the `claims both of lesser communities within it and those which cut across it or potentially unfold within a still greater society.' (See also Smith 1991). At the same time, scholars have begun to toll the demise of the nation-state as the primary focus of human alignment, supplanted either by a world made up of regions, or of civilis- ations, or of non-territorial entities altogether (Ohmae 1993; Huntington 1996; Taylor 1996). The proliferation of such alternatives elicits the question of whether these identities com- pete with national identity, by threatening to supplant its pre-eminent position, or whether they may peacefully coexist with national identity, by providing an affiliation that may perhaps bolster national legitimacy while offering an outlet for regionalism. In this paper I examine one alternative identification that complicates the singular affiliation with the nation: that of the border- land. This discussion focuses on how identity is evinced and created through its geographi- cal manifestations, what is termed `spatial identity', and how the entanglement of these spatial identities converge at the borderlands. The manner in which these identities are expressed geographically, and how they co- ordinate with one another can result in either asymmetry or multifocality. Asymmetry occurs when the spatial identi- ties of different groups conflict. The uneven co-ordination of spatial identities vested with primary significance calls into question the affiliations and the loyalties of individuals living within areas claimed by overlapping groups. Such asymmetry is predicated on the exclusivity of national territory which allows no room for coexisting identities. Multifocality occurs when spatial identities mesh together in ways that do not threaten the position of any one particular identity. Scholars exam- ining migrant populations have described mutual attachments to a homeland and to a diaspora community (Rouse 1991; Mankekar 1994). And the European Community (now the European Union) has been described as the `first multiperspectival polity' that Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie ± 2000, Vol. 91, No. 1, pp. 44±60. # 2000 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden MA 02148, USA