Doctoral Dissertation Research: Territory and Identity in the Age of Globalization: The Case of Western Europe

这个项目探讨了在人口的国际流动性增加、市场一体化和民族国家结构转变的背景下，领土和身份之间的关系。西欧是本研究的重点。地理学、社会学、人类学、经济学和政治学方面的大量学术贡献指出，经济生产方式和政治治理形式今天正在经历一个超尺度(如欧洲联盟、全球)和次国家尺度(如区域和城市)的重新调整过程。然而，为解决居住在正在经历这些重新调整进程的空间中的人的领土特性变化问题，所作的贡献相对较少。本研究的目的是为理解这一相关问题提供经验和理论贡献。这项任务将采用定量和定性相结合的方法。首先，研究将使用来自欧洲晴雨表调查的数据集，涵盖1982-2004年，以回答以下问题：对国家的认同仍然是西欧人领土政治认同的主要形式吗？国家以上和国家以下的经济生产和治理形式的重新调整是否与人民领土特性的类似重新调整相关联？如果是这样的话，在社会人口特征方面，有没有任何明确的模式来解释这种领土认同的重新调整？欧洲这些身份变化的时间和地区趋势是什么？其次，这项研究将收集五个地区案例研究的定性数据(大伦敦；芬兰哈姆；意大利利古里亚和卡拉布里亚；法国阿基坦)。这些案例研究区域是在严格的方法分析基础上选定的，这些方法分析根据依附于欧洲联盟的社会人口预测指标将欧洲区域聚集在一起。通过对普通人的焦点小组和对政治经济精英的采访，这项研究将探索与欧洲晴雨表调查以一种自我意义的方式使用的“领土依恋”概念相关的不同含义。理解在当今全球化社会中领土和身份认同是如何相互关联的，具有学术和政策价值。从学术角度来看，这种理解对于补充关于经济生产方式和政治治理形式去地域化/再地域化的理论是必要的。在政策领域，虽然我们对全球化在经济和政治上调整领土结构的方式有很好的了解，但对全球化如何影响领土和身份之间的关系仍然知之甚少。至少在过去两个世纪里，民族国家模式已经巩固了自己作为主导政治形式的地位，现在正受到这些经济、政治和心理社会变化的挑战。对这一挑战的理解被认为是一个突出的公共政策问题，特别是在欧洲，从一个经济联盟转变为一个具有自己的政治-领土身份的主题的项目目前正在顺利进行。

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.