Regions, Territories and Relationality: Exploring the Regional Dimensions of Political Practice

Abstract

Goodwin M. Regions, territories and relationality: exploring the regional dimensions of political practice, Regional Studies. Recent conceptual innovations in the discipline of geography have sought to establish the notion of the ‘relational region’. In opposition to the idea that regions are bounded and discrete, lying within a hierarchy of nested scales, the relational view sees a region as open and discontinuous, forged through a set of spatially stretched articulations and networks. This paper explores what this relational view might contribute to an understanding of the region's role in promoting sustainability, using the South West region of England as a case study. It concludes by arguing that regions are constituted through territoriality as well as relationality.