Kees Terlouw – författare

The relation between identity and space is strong and generates many conflicts. Most people attach great importance to their local community and its identity. The possibility of change can cause turmoil and become fertile ground for staking new identities. Understanding how these changes can take place is important to the future of community cohesion across the world.This book gives a detailed analysis of how different stakeholders in two Dutch municipalities use and adapt their identity discourses to deal with changing circumstances, situating this work within a wider international context through global comparisons. The growing spatial interdependence and political pressures for municipal cooperation or amalgamation creates not only threats, but also opportunities for stakeholders in local communities to transform their local identities. By studying how local communities attach to local identities, a new conceptual framework can be formed, informed by lively accounts from residents on the rich and varied use of identity in their communities and their concerns over future developments.This is valuable reading for students, scholars and researchers working in geography, politics, sociology and cultural studies.

This monograph presents a novel typology of relational and territorial perspectives on legitimacy and identity. This typology is then applied to two different political and historical contexts, namely the trajectories of the metropolitan region Amsterdam in the Netherlands and the metropolitan region Ruhr in Germany. The historical discussion spans 500 years, providing valuable depth to the study.Taken as a whole, the book provides a new perspective within the territorial-relational dichotomy and the geographies of discontent debate. Its key insights are that identity and political legitimacy are embedded in history and that both relational and territorial perspectives on these issues are time and place dependent.This book will be stimulating reading for advanced students, researchers, and policymakers working in political geography, human geography, regional studies, and broader social and political sciences.

This monograph presents a novel typology of relational and territorial perspectives on legitimacy and identity. This typology is then applied to two different political and historical contexts, namely the trajectories of the metropolitan region Amsterdam in the Netherlands and the metropolitan region Ruhr in Germany. The historical discussion spans 500 years, providing valuable depth to the study.Taken as a whole, the book provides a new perspective within the territorial-relational dichotomy and the geographies of discontent debate. Its key insights are that identity and political legitimacy are embedded in history and that both relational and territorial perspectives on these issues are time and place dependent.This book will be stimulating reading for advanced students, researchers, and policymakers working in political geography, human geography, regional studies, and broader social and political sciences.

This book links the current wave of political polarisation to the polarisation taking place between cosmopolitan and parochial identity discourses and their antagonistic valuation of iconic urban and regional places.Instead of looking for explanations of polarisation only in left-behind regions, this book analyses how societal changes favouring cities, like globalisation and individualisation, created an urban hubris which is now challenged. A careful analysis of the different valuations of specific iconic places like those linked to borders, waterfront apartments, and livestock farms in different Western European countries shows that this polarisation between cosmopolitan and parochial identity discourses goes deeper and further than the rise in support for national populism. It shows the growing spatial polarisation through the enclavisation of the cosmopolitan new bourgeoisie in cities, further polarising the antagonistic valuation of different iconic urban and regional places as either disgusting examples of urban arrogance or parochial bigotry.The broader spatial and temporal perspective adopted in this book is of interest to anyone who wants to look beyond the national political headlines. It will help students, researchers, human geographers, political scientists, and sociologists better understand the intricate relation between identities, politics, places, and societal developments.

This book links the current wave of political polarisation to the polarisation taking place between cosmopolitan and parochial identity discourses and their antagonistic valuation of iconic urban and regional places.Instead of looking for explanations of polarisation only in left-behind regions, this book analyses how societal changes favouring cities, like globalisation and individualisation, created an urban hubris which is now challenged. A careful analysis of the different valuations of specific iconic places like those linked to borders, waterfront apartments, and livestock farms in different Western European countries shows that this polarisation between cosmopolitan and parochial identity discourses goes deeper and further than the rise in support for national populism. It shows the growing spatial polarisation through the enclavisation of the cosmopolitan new bourgeoisie in cities, further polarising the antagonistic valuation of different iconic urban and regional places as either disgusting examples of urban arrogance or parochial bigotry.The broader spatial and temporal perspective adopted in this book is of interest to anyone who wants to look beyond the national political headlines. It will help students, researchers, human geographers, political scientists, and sociologists better understand the intricate relation between identities, politics, places, and societal developments.