REGION

REGION

An area characterised by a relative uniformity of environmental characteristics (geographical, biogeographical, zoogeographical, climatic regions) or socio-cultural phenomena (economic, linguistic, religious, historical, ethnic and cultural regions).

Regions are separated from each other, but the boundaries between them cannot usually be defined precisely, just as geographical and cultural regions do not have to overlap. An example of this is Egypt, for example, which, according to its geographical division into continents, belongs to Africa, but culturally, including historically and linguistically, to the Mediterranean region (with regard to ancient cultures, the Mediterranean Sea played a unifying and not a separating role, thus contributing to the creation of the region). The exception is the borders of administrative (political) regions, which may or may not be based on cultural (including historical, linguistic, economic) determinants. Regions can function formally (in names, statistics, atlases) or informally (in the verbal tradition).

Specific regions combining both geographical and anthropogenic features are tourist regions, which are distinguished by visual aspects, often associated with the landscape and influencing its aesthetics (so-called landscape qualities, e.g. a picturesquely located village), natural resources (clean environment, air, water influencing the quality of life), economic management methods (not threatening natural resources), local produce (cheese, wine, sausages) resulting from them and building the region’s uniqueness, appearance of the inhabitants (ethnic features, ways of dressing), religion (and the presence of temples), terrain and infrastructure to encourage specific activities (skiing, climbing, cycling), historical events or the language (dialect) spoken by the inhabitants, the uniqueness of the cuisine (based on local produce and ways of preparing meals).

The region is also an area that has been recognised for its standards of thinking. Livingstone points out that knowledge depends on awareness (including regional awareness), but also on tradition in the style of thinking or political option, e.g. in some regions of the world there are scientific justifications, in others religious, mythological or magical ones; English philosophy is rather empirical, French closer to rationalism, German – to mysticism. On the other hand, knowledge has the ability to cross regional boundaries: Chinese alchemy has contributed to the development of European medicine, Arabic surface measurement methods have had an impact on European cartography, Ptolemy’s writings have only found a wider reception after their translation in Baghdad. Regionally rooted ways of thinking can affect other areas of life, including the landscape (environmental protection, lifestyles).

Regions in the geographical sense are subject to geographical research (e.g. regional geography), in the socio-cultural sense of ethnology (folklore research, dialectology). Regions distinguished by both geographical and cultural factors (interrelationship of cultural and environmental features) are subject to the study of humanistic geography, cultural anthropology, environmental psychology, history, linguistics, economics, demography and other social sciences. Geographical regions are characterised by relative permanence (e.g. changes resulting from climate change, global warming, steppe formation, etc.), while socio-cultural changes are more frequent and rapid (e.g. population migrations contribute to the spread of certain cultural patterns – including religious ones – or economic patterns, e.g. capitalism dominates in countries belonging to a cultural region called the West or the Euro-Atlantic culture).

The socio-cultural (political) movement aiming at distinguishing the region is regionalism. Representatives of the movement have a number of tools used to search for and strengthen regional identity. These include, for example, legal acts aimed at protecting the local material environment (including the natural and cultural environment), research on folklore and culture working to promote the use of appropriate names, discovering cultural heritage, local literature and poetry, creating institutions whose task is to stimulate regional awareness of residents by building (sometimes inventing) identity, mythology strengthened by regional symbols – monuments, flags, cult of heroes (Paasi, Cresswell) – with which residents could identify themselves and which can have an impact on the organisation of cultural events. Regionalism is a counterbalance to globalisation movements (Giddens, Relph).

[M. G.]

Literature:

Bailey, Robert G. Ecosystem Geography. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1996.

Cresswell, Tim. Place: a Short Introduction. Malden-Oxford-Carlton: Blackwell Publishing, 2004.

Entrikin, J. Nicholas. The Betweeness of Place: Towards a Geography of Modernity. London: Macmilian, 1991.

Giddens, Anthony. Runaway World: How Globalization is Reshaping Our Lives. London: Profile, 1999.

Harvey, David. Justice, Nature and the Geography of Difference. Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers, 1996.

Kondracki, Jerzy. Podstawy regionalizacji fizycznogeograficznej. Warszawa: PWN, 1969.

Livingstone, David N. Science, Space and Hermeneutics, The Hettner Lectures 2001. Heidelberg: University of Heidelberg, 2002.

Makowski, Jerzy. Geografia fizyczna świata. Warszawa: PWN, 2007

Paasi Anassi. „Place and Region: Regional Worlds and Words.” Progress ln Human Geography, 26:6 (2002): 802-811.

Relph, Edward. Place and Placelessness. London: Pion Limited, 1976.

Tilley, Christopher. A Phenomenology of Landscape: Place, Paths and Monuments. Oxford: Berg, 1994.