Kees Terlouw

The selective nature of place branding and the layering of spatial identities

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to strengthen the conceptual understanding of place brands and place branding by exploring to what extent place branding implies a level of selectivity and how this relates to the layering of spatial identities.Design/methodology/approach – A conceptual approach has been taken in this paper to provide an analytical conceptualisation of place branding to guide future empirical studies. The research, and the resulting paper has been structured around a progressive discussion of place as concept, of place brands as limited forms of geographical representations and of place branding as a highly selective process.Findings – Places are highly complex and cannot simply be understood as spatial entities within a closed hierarchical, territorial‐administrative system. Places only exist when they have an audience, and the resulting spatial identities often overlap, contradict or complement each other across existing territorial‐administrative levels. The rise of new forms of s...

Border Surfers and Euroregions: Unplanned Cross-Border Behaviour and Planned Territorial Structures of Cross-Border Governance

Abstract The rise of cross-border relations is frequently linked to the decline of the nation state and the emergence of new forms of European governance. This article challenges some of the assumptions behind the policies stimulating regional cooperation along the national borders within the EU. It questions the assumption that regional cross-border governance is necessary for cross-border relations to develop. The article argues that the institutionalization of different territorial nation states with different social regulations not always hinders, but frequently stimulates cross-border relations. However, the territoriality of the EU planning practice of stimulating regional cross-border cooperation frequently hinders cross-border governance. The territorial administrative logic of cross-border cooperation and its governance drift away from the border, where cross-border behaviour is concentrated. The emergence of cross-border governance is further complicated while cross-border behaviour depends on national and international regulations outside the control of the midsized Euroregions. People living close to the border can sometimes profit from these differences. The fluid and fragmented groups of these border surfers are difficult to incorporate in the governance of territorial Euroregions. This article shows that unintended consequences of the EU planning practice of stimulating cross-border cooperation sometimes hinder the emergence of cross-border governance.

Regions in geography and the regional geography of semiperipheral development

The revival of interest in regions contrasts with a lack of systematic study of them. Usually regions are not studied to understand regions, but to understand how the regional influences specific processes. These studies focus on a specific topic in a particular type of region. However useful these thematic case studies into the role of the regional are, they need to be augmented by other perspectives. Three different dimensions of regions are essential to understand regions. Regions are: arenas of social processes; territories of control; and spatial formations interacting at different scales. An overview of semiperipheral development illustrates how these three dimensions and different scales in the world-system can be connected. Copyright Royal Dutch Geographical Society 2001.

The established, the outsiders and scale strategies: studying local power conflicts

Established – outsider theory has been a useful tool for explaining the nature and course of local conflicts since its introduction in the 1960s. However, increased mobility and changing lifestyles have led to a change in the role of the local community in peoples lives. Established – outsider theory can still be very relevant in explaining the course of local conflicts, if combined with new insights on the relation between space and community and the geographical concept of scale. Then it becomes clear that groups can use a number of scalar strategies in order to win a local conflict. An analysis of local conflicts in the Dutch village of Amerongen shows the related character of these strategies.

Layering spatial identities: the identity discourses of new regions

The number and importance of regions are increasing at the same time as traditional regional identities are undermined through processes like globalisation and individualisation. Local and other administrations increasingly cooperate and create new regions which are too changeable for a distinct collective identity to develop. Nevertheless, a clear identity discourse helps administrators to justify their policies; to mobilise local stakeholders; to attract outside resources; and to get attention and funding from the central government. This paper studies how the identity discourses of these new regions are constructed by administrators and other stakeholders by using elements linked to the identity of more established spatial entities. Especially important are the selective downloading of characteristics from the nations and regions to which they belong and the uploading of specific qualities from the cities and areas within their boundaries. We analyse how in two areas in the Netherlands the identity discourses of new regions have been constructed through selective association with the complex layers of more established spatial identities nearby.

Semi-Peripheral Developments: From World-Systems to Regions

The introduction of the semi-periphery concept improved the analysis of global icequalities. An extra category does more justice to the complex spatial inequalities than a simple core-periphery dichotomy. Many authors1 working from within the world-systems perspective have identified semi-peripheral states. They all found the semi-periphery they were looking for, but they disagreed about which states were semi-peripheral. Almost every state is considered as semiperipheral. Only the core states United States, Great Britain, Germany and most of the peripheral states south of the Sahara are never regarded as semi-peripheral. Remarkably, no single state is classified as semiperipheral by all. Although the ordering of states from core to periphery is quite uniform, the borders between core and semi-periphery and between semi-periphery and periphery are drawn at different places. A continuum between core and periphery would better describe the differences in the world. This calls into question the usefulness of the concept.

Territorial changes and changing identities: how spatial identities are used in the up-scaling of local government in the Netherlands

ABSTRACT This article analyses the use of local identities by local communities in two Dutch municipalities. This research was commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of the Interior to better understand the role of local identities in municipal amalgamations. This article develops a conceptual framework based on the distinction between a primary identity based on the widely recognised dominant characteristics of the local community, and a secondary identity based on how communities within a municipality have learned over time to deal with these different primary local identities. During an amalgamation, this secondary identity disappears with the old municipality. The disappearance of the protective shield of a secondary identity exposes the underlying primary local identities, and can bring local identities into the centre of the local political debate. They can become more ***inward-oriented and focus more on their historical roots and their differences with others; they ‘thicken’ into resistance identities. In other cases, the secondary identity of a municipality is too weak and indistinct to support the primary local identities. Municipal amalgamation can then help to promote a new more attractive secondary, ‘thin’ regional identity based on a selection of characteristics of established primary local identities.

Area Studies at Utrecht University: A Regional Geographical Approach

Area studies in Utrecht is part of Geography. It is an important element of the Bachelor programme of Human Geography, and is one of its Masters specialisations with dozens of students participating each year. Rooted in geography its programme differs from area studies elsewhere, but their goals and other characteristics are converging. This paper is organised to make this point. An overview of Masters theses in the next section gives a ®rst impression of the character of the area studies programme in Utrecht. These are quite similar to area studies in general. Our regional geographical approach makes our teaching methodology different. Traditional conceptions of regions as distinct areas at the sub-national level are obsolete. The second section discusses regions as unstable constructions connected with processes on different scales. The consequences of this reconceptualisation of regions for the area studies programme in Utrecht forms the main part of this paper. The programme starts with a strong, but not exclusive regional geographical perspective, which is the basis for a broader areas studies programme. The teaching method based in regional geography differs from area studies in general, but creates a similar body of knowledge at the end of the programme.