Conceptualizing the Region – In What Sense Relational?

Abstract

Recently, the question of how to conceptualize the region seems to have created a division in geographical scholarship between those propagating the primacy of a relational view on the one hand and those defending the relevance of a territorial view on the other. This paper argues that two main factors have impeded a fruitful discussion, to the extent that even some points of convergence have been neglected. First, the two strands have drawn, sometimes implicitly, on incommensurable philosophical assumptions. Second, scholars in favour of a relational view have at times made statements that do not fit well (some of) their philosophical sources of inspiration. The paper suggests that we readdress the task of conceptualization by following consistently a discourse-theoretical relational ontology. "At the moment only philosophical confusion reigns supreme in much writing about place, space and region."

Socio-economic and political responses to regional polarisation and socio-spatial peripheralisation in Central and Eastern Europe: a research agenda

“…I suggest understanding polarisation and peripheralisation as analytical concepts that facilitate process-based relational understandings of spatial diff erentiation and supplement structural research approaches (see also Massey, D. 2009;Varró, K. and Lagendij k, A. 2013).…”

Tijdspraktijken: DNA en de on/onderbroken stad

“…Toen het hout aan een grondig proces van omzetting onderworpen werd en daarbij werd aangesloten op een netwerk van specialistische kennis, microscopen, metingen en datasets, bleek een chronologische temporaliteit te kunnen ontstaan waarbinnen het hout was opgenomen. Tijd is zo bezien geen natuurlijk fenomeen dat aan het hout, de boom, of de afwisseling van seizoenen kan worden toegeschreven, maar een relationeel fenomeen dat tot stand gebracht wordt met behulp van specifieke technieken in specifieke praktijken (Serres 1995;Murdoch 1998;Varró en Lagendijk 2013). …”

European integration and the territorial‐administrative complex

“…reviewing the literature as of then, Varró and lagendijk (2013) conclude that "territorially embedded" and "relational and unbounded" conceptions of regions are complementary. With reference english regional planning, Harrison (2013) thus shows the succession of statutory "key diagrams" for north West england reflecting changing emphases on one and the other.…”