Die diskursive Mobilisierung der Region

During the last decades, the importance of regions as sub-national entities has grown. The book analyzes the relation of the process with the homogenization of the nation state. It argues that the influence of international, world-culturally inspired ideas and discourses lead to the diffusion and isomorphism of the structure of ‘regions’ and hence to its discursive mobilization. Regions no longer need to be justified historically – in the process of institutionalizing within and beside the nation state, also regions without a long history and newly constituted regions can access strong arguments of justifications.

Using the example of Spain and the three differently formed regions of Catalonia, Extremadura, and La Rioja, the author shows how the world polity approach of John Meyer et al. can be used in qualitative, discourse analytical research, and discusses the benefit of this approach for the explanation of the mobilization and isomorphism of regional structures.