This project explores the relationship between territory and identity in the context of increasing international mobility of people, integration of markets, and transformation of the structure of the nation-state. Western Europe is the focus of this research. A vast amount of scholarly contributions in geography, sociology, anthropology, economics, and political science have pointed out that modes of economic production and forms of political governance are today experiencing a re-scaling process on both the supra- (e.g. European Union, global) and the sub-national scales (e.g. regions and cities). However, relatively few contributions have been made in order to address the issue of the changes of the territorial identities of the people who live in the spaces which are experiencing these rescaling processes. It is the aim of this research to offer an empirical and theoretical contribution for understanding this relevant issue. The task will be carried out by employing a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. First, the research will use a data set coming from Eurobarometer surveys and covering the years 1982-2004 in order to answer the following questions: Is identity with the nation still the primary form of territorial political identities for people in Western Europe? Is the re-scaling of forms of economic production and governance at the supra- and sub-national scale associated with a similar re-scaling of the territorial identities of people? If this is the case, is there any clear pattern in terms of socio-demographic characteristics that accounts for such a re-scaling of territorial identities? What are the temporal and regional trends in these identity changes in Europe? Second, the research will collect qualitative data in five regional case studies (Greater London; Hame, Finland; Liguria and Calabria, Italy; and Aquitaine, France). These case study regions are selected on the basis of a rigorous methodological analysis that clustered the regions of Europe on the socio-demographic predictors that underlie attachment to the European Union. By using focus groups with ordinary people and interviews with politico-economic elites, the research will explore the different meanings associated with the notion of 'territorial attachment', which is used in a self-meaningful way by Eurobarometer surveys.
To understand how territory and identity relate to each other in today globalized societies has both scholarly and policy value. From a scholarly perspective, this understanding is needed for complementing theories on both the de-/re-territorialization of modes of economic production and of forms of political governance. In the policy domain, while we have a good understanding about the ways that globalization is restructuring territories economically and politically, little is still known about the ways globalization affects the relationship between territory and identity. The nation-state model which, at least for the last two centuries, has consolidated itself as the dominant political form is now under challenge from these economic, political and psycho-social changes. The understanding of this challenge is considered a salient public policy issue, particularly in Europe, where the project of transformation from an economic union into a subject with its own political-territorial identity is now well underway.
