1 RESCALING REGIONAL IDENTITIES: COMMUNICATING THICK AND THIN REGIONAL IDENTITIES (Accepted for publication in Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism for autumn 2009) Dr. Kees Terlouw Assistant professor Human Geography terlouw@geo.uu.nl Urban and Regional research centre, Department of Human Geography & Planning, Utrecht University, Netherlands ABSTRACT Novel forms of regional identities emerge in response to global competitive pressures and challenges to the nation-state. Regions have to react and position their identity in relation to the rescaling of statehood. Especially the growing autonomy of regional administrations makes support from local stakeholders more important. Communicating a specific regional identity is one of the instruments regional administrations use for mobilising support. However, at the same time old, traditional regional identities become more fluid. Regional identity traditionally focuses on shared past and specific social and cultural characteristics. Especially globalisation and individualisation undermine this traditional thick regional identity. Regional administrations have to adjust their communicated regional identity. By communicating the image of a future oriented region which can face the challenges of global competition they increasingly use a thin regional identity. This paper analyses different case studies from the Netherlands and Germany. 1 Introduction: regional identity and the rescaling of statehood The growing importance of regional identity is frequently linked to globalisation and the decline of the nation-state. However, the same processes which make regional identity more important also undermine the traditional or thick forms of regional identity. Regional administrations therefore need to communicate more fluid and thinner regional identity to mobilise support. This paper starts by discussing the three related academic discourses which relate regions with globalisation. The shift from thick to thin regional identity is subsequently discussed. These concepts are then used to analyse the communicated regional identity of some German and Dutch administrative regions. Three related academic discourses relate regions with globalisation. The first focuses on regional identity, the second on the economic role of regions and the third on the changing political relation between regions and the state. Regional identities were traditionally seen as pre-modern phenomena. These relics from the past would gradually disappear with the development of the modern nation-state. The resurgence of regionalisms since the 1960s were initially ignored or regarded as fringe phenomena, especially while these regional movements initially focussed on cultural and language rights. Later, these regionalisms were reinterpreted as the reaction of Flemish, Basques, Catalans, Scots and Northern Italians to the failure of nation-states to regulate globalisation. On the one hand, their nation-state could not protect them from the negative consequences of globalisation. On the other hand, it hindered them in profiting from globalisation. Individuals therefore identify less with the far away and dis-functioning nation- state and more with their regional community (Keating 1998; Bauman 2001; Delanty and Rumford 2005; Savage et al. 2005; Paasi 2003). Economic discourses also relate regions with globalisation. They focus on explaining the economic growth of regions like Silicon Valley, Baden-Württemberg and northern Italy. Their economic development is regionally rooted. These discourses stress the importance of cultural and social backgrounds to economic growth. One point frequently made is that regions are better frameworks for communication and cooperation than nation-states.