What Kind of Regionalism? : Regionalism and Region Building in Northern European Peripheries

Sammanfattning: "What Kind of Regionalism?" is a comparative study of regionalism and region building in two northern European regions – Meclenburg-Western Pomerania in Germany and Norrbotten in Sweden. The aim of the thesis is to investigate what kind of regionalism is emerging in regions that are neither economically successful nor regarded as 'ethnic communities'. The study demonstrates that in both regions, there are 'civic' and new regionalist tendencies side by side with more romanticist, culturalizing, 'old' regionalist traits. One of the conclusions, therefore, is that the presumed difference between old forms of ethno-regionalism and new regionalism needs to be nuanced. Another conclusion is that regionalism needs to be analyzed as an instance of a political ideology that rests on certain set of norms, values and ways of conceptualize society.