Strategier för regional tillväxt och utveckling: Konsekvenser för regionalt medborgarskap & tillhörighet

Abstract

Under de senaste decennierna har litteraturen om regionalism och regionalisering vuxit betydligt, liksom litteraturen om medborgarskap. Men även om globalisering, internationell migration, välfärdsstatens omvandling och processer av regionalism och regionalisering torde ha stora konsekvenser för politiskt, ekonomiskt och socialt medborgarskap på regional nivå, har få uttryckliga försök gjorts för att koppla litteraturen om regionalism och regionalisering, till litteraturen om medborgarskap. Det främsta syftet med detta projekt är därför att - empiriskt och teoretiskt - utveckla begreppet "regional medborgarskap ".

Keywords:

Description

The main aim of this project is to - empirically and theoretically - elaborate on the concept of regional citizenship. This is done through emprical studies in East Sweden, an area where several on-going processes of region building can be observed at the moment. Moreover, the project aims at organizing a workshop where the issue of regional citizenship is brought to discussion. The workshop aims at theoretical development and elaboration, and at bridging the gap between the literature on regionalism and regionalisation at the one hand, and the literature on citizenship at the other.

The workshop will have a Nordic focus, and invite papers where the issue of "regional citizenship" is targeted with empirical examples from regions within a Nordic country. Since citizenship is likely to denote differently in different kinds of regions, the organisers welcome papers where the empirical material has been drawn from political regions, functional regions, affirmative or ?cultural? regions as well as other regional constructions. It needs however to be reminded that "region" in the context of the workshop is a sub-national unit. Accordingly, it is sub-national regions within the Nordic countries that are of interest here, not Norden itself as a macro region. Examples from Nordic trans-border regions are however of great interest for the workshop.

Priority will also be given to papers with a more theoretical approach. We need, initially, to explore whether there is such a thing as "regional citizenship", and, if so, to elucidate if this citizenship is gendered, classed or ethnified. Another issue of interest is whether a regional citizenship is detached from the notion of what it means to be ?national?? We need, furthermore, to explore whether the regional citizenship is more accessible for new ethnic minorities and migrants than citizenship at other spatial and conceptual levels. Thus, in the intersection between the fields of regional studies and citizenship research, questions regarding migration, ethnicity, gender and class come to the fore.

The workshop was held in March 2009 and arranged in cooperation with the Nordic section of the Regional Studies Association and with partners in Denmark, Norway and Finland. The remeso research fellows mentioned, Peo Hansen, Magnus Dahlstedt, Mekonnen Tesfahuney, all participated in the project by presenting papers at the workshop. The external research fellows, Henrik Halkier, Anssi Paasi, Peter de Souza, have participated in the project as members of the academic committee, elaborating on the programme for the workshop. Professor Eloenore Kofman, Midlesex University UK, and Professor Charlie Jeffery, EUI Florence, participated in the project as key note speakers at the workshop.

Publications

Syssner, J. (2008), ?Den regionala medborgaren?, in Andersson, F., Ek, R., Molina, I (red.) Regionalpolitikens Geografi, Lund: Studentlitteratur.

Syssner, J. (2009) ?No Space for Citizen??, paper presented at ?Is There a Regional Citizenship??, International workshop arranged by REMESO and Regional Studies Association, Norrköping, Sweden.

Syssner, J. (2008), ?Finns det ett regionalt medborgarskap?? i Gränsbrytning.

Syssner, J. (2011) ?No space for Citizens? Conceptualisations of Citizenship in a functional Region?, in Journal of Citizenship Studies, 12/04.

Other Academic Output

March 2009: Nordic workshop arranged in cooperation with Regional Studies Association, patrially funded by FORMAS and Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.