and territorial identity and geography of borders

New Theoretical Approaches The first premise of the new politico-geographical view of borders is that they cannot now be studied only at the country level.

In an increasingly interdependent and integrated world, organizational

tions, for example " united Europe» (i.e. countries European Union), and at the same time, in response to the internationalization of the economy and the unification of culture, regional sa-Therefore, it can be argued that now, even more than before, "border border - strife." Indeed, why do some borders remain “transparent” and calm for a long time, while others constantly appear as a barrier that is difficult to overcome?

Even before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Fouche identified several types of borders, depending on their relationship with geopolitical boundaries that arose as a result of the proximity of three types of political formations - “empires” (Fouche meant the USA and the USSR), “normal” sovereign states and “under construction” states. This term meant states with a weak national political identity, torn apart by contradictions and not fully in control of their territory. Fouche proposed to distinguish boundaries between:

Two "empires";

"empire" and "normal" sovereign state;

"empire" and "under construction" state;

"normal" sovereign states;

a "normal" sovereign state and a "under construction" state;

states under construction.

It was the existence of "empires", according to Fouche, that predetermined the stability of frontal borders. But as experience has shown, even after the collapse of the USSR, frontal borders did not disappear where geopolitical borders coincided with cultural, ethnic and linguistic 1991].

Thus, the political situation in the border zone cannot be fully explained by the peculiarities of the border between the two countries. The place of the border in the entire system of world borders is also important. The barrier function of the border is stronger if it separates military-political or economic blocs.

The second premise is that borders cannot be studied in isolation from the problems of identity - self-identification of a person with a certain social and / or territorial group, primarily ethnic. Nationalism always involves the struggle for territory or the defense of rights to it. Nationalists, as a rule, dream of redistribution political map- either by expanding their ethnic territory, or by ousting "foreigners" from it. The territory occupies a central place in the so-called primordialist theories of the nation (from the English primordial - original, primordial).

In these theories, two approaches are distinguished, based on different interpretations of human nature.

Supporters of the natural-biological approach consider it possible to apply concepts to the understanding of ethnic phenomena. In their opinion, nations have evolved on the basis of extended kinship groups and represent communities based on biological origin. The nation is thus founded on a deep affection rooted in blood ties.

Another approach, called evolutionary-historical, was adopted by many German, Russian and Soviet anthropologists and ethnographers. It comes from JL Herder's notion of

people as a community arising on the basis of the unity of blood and soil. According to their concept,

a nation is formed from a historical ethno-cultural community of people connected by a certain territory, and is a self-determining stable community, whose representatives are united by common roots and faith in a common present and future. Members of this ethno-cultural community are united by significant characteristics that have not changed since time immemorial (language, religion, territory, culture, customs, lifestyle, mentality, historical roots).

Geographical and geocosmic factors determine ethnogenesis and, according to L. N. Gumilyov. He considered the ethnos as a biosocial organism, characterized by a certain duration of existence, divided into certain periods - youth, maturity, old age. Gumilev considered the formation of an ethnos to be a product of the combined action of cosmic energies and features of the landscape (a place of development) in which ethnogenesis proceeded [Gumilyov, 1989]. However, abrupt and unforeseen changes sometimes occur in the life of nations, and the views of people about what distinguishes their nation from others, their ideas about their national interests as Germans, French or Russians, are modified over time.

Primordialist views, in fact, were held by K. Marx and V. I. Lenin. In wide famous article"On the right of nations to self-determination" Lenin, developing the ideas of Marx, placed the signs of a nation in the following sequence;

The unity of the territory on which the people live;

Common economic ties;

Mutual language;

The generality of the psychological warehouse, or the specific features of the culture of the people.

The spiritual community of the members of the nation Lenin considered only in the last place. He believed that a person from birth belongs to a certain nation and there can be no talk of a free choice of nationality. Lenin considered "unacceptable the determination of the composition of nations by the free entry of every citizen, regardless of his place of residence, into any national union" [Poln. coll. cit., vol. XVII, p. 92-95].

Section II. Political geography

He sharply criticized the supporters of cultural and national autonomies, who defended the right of residents for many years. nation states on the free choice school and language of instruction. JV Stalin, fully accepting the Leninist concept of the nation, emphasized that a social community ceases to be a nation if it does not satisfy at least one criterion of the Leninist definition.

Thus, primordialists believe that nations have measurable, tangible characteristics. Indeed, it is possible, with greater or lesser accuracy, to delineate the territory in which an ethnic group lives, to calculate the proportion of those who speak its language, to analyze economic ties and cultural characteristics.

Therefore, during the formation of the USSR, an unambiguous territorial and political demarcation between ethnic groups on the basis of measurable characteristics turned into a practical task. Lenin supported the nation's right to self-determination, i.e. on state separation from foreign territorial communities up to the formation of an independent nation-state. At the same time, Lenin believed that the larger the country, the better the conditions for the working class to solve its internationalist tasks, and in practice, in his opinion, the question of the expediency of separating the nation from the USSR could be decided only at the highest level of the leading workers' party.

The right of nations to self-determination theoretically underlay the state structure of the USSR: it was officially assumed that the peoples realized this right within the framework of a socialist federation, in which state formations were created for many of them. It only remained to decide which ethnic groups were entitled to their own republic or autonomy, and which were subject to assimilation or ethnic integration, for example, it was assumed that sub-ethnic groups of Georgians or Russians would integrate into single socialist nations, and then to draw the boundaries of each national entity. In the former Russian Empire, with an extremely complex multinational composition of the population and the mixed nature of the residence of many ethnic groups this task proved to be insurmountable. Attempts to draw rigid boundaries between autonomies often led to an aggravation of national conflicts.

In contrast to primordialist concepts, supporters of instrumentalist theories of the nation understand them as

2. Borders, state building,...

modern communities united by political interests and significant characteristics created in the recent past, and their common genealogical and geographical roots are myths created to bring together modern communities.

This type of theory includes the theory of the so-called “melting pot theory”, which dominated cultural anthropology until the middle of the years, put forward by American anthropologists and sociologists. They considered ethnic groups as remnants of the pre-industrial era and believed that the importance of ethnic communities and ethnic feelings would gradually decline during the processes of urbanization and modernization, minority acculturation, structural and linguistic assimilation.

According to the views of Barth and his followers, national self-consciousness is formed in the process of socialization of the individual and a person is not at all born with a sense of common ethnic origin with any group. The main provisions of the theory of ethnic identity were clearly formulated by the leading ethnologist V. A. Tnshkov:

Ethnic communities exist on the basis of historical culture B**

differences and are social constructions that arise and exist as a result of purposeful efforts on the part of people and the institutions they create, especially on the part of the state. The essence of these communities is the idea shared by people about belonging to a community, or identity, as well as the solidarity that arises on its basis;

The boundaries of communities formed on the basis of selected cultural characteristics and the content of identity are mobile and change in and situational plans;

Created and based on an individual choice for group solidarity, the nature of socio-cultural communities is determined by their goals and strategies, among which are: organization of responses to external challenges through group solidarity,

control over resources and political institutions, ensuring social comfort within culturally homogeneous communities [Tishkov, 1997J.

The competitive and multiple nature of identity is built as a result of dialogue and power relations between social

Section II. Political geography

mi groups, between a social group and the state, and between states.

Two forms of group identity compete with each other: by culture (primarily ethnic) and by political loyalty (political), reflecting the existence of the most powerful forms of social groupings of people - ethnic communities and state formations.

In an effort to mobilize an ethnic group to fight against their opponents or against the central government, the elites use old or mobilize new "markers" - group features and symbols, historical myths and social ideas that distinguish it from others, opposing "us" ("ours") "them", "alien".

The process of cultural divergence acquires a special scope if the state machine is placed at its service, as happened in the republics of the former USSR. The leading force in the construction of new ethnic identities is the political elites, who are interested in their legitimation, maintaining a status that allows them to control the economic and other resources of the group.

Thus, it is in the process of nation and state building and as a result of national conflicts that new borders, new frontier zones and new relations between neighbors are very often formed. Therefore, the starting point for studies of modern borders should be the study of the emergence and evolution of territorial identities.

Borders are relatively recent social constructs, first created in social representations, and then already delimited by a map.

If the nature of the border depends on the nature of the state, then what are its most important characteristics? What are the most important goals and functions of the state? How is the nature of the border related to global and international issues? To answer these questions, as we have already noted, it is necessary to consider borders at several levels at once - from global to local, although the level of the state remains the most important so far. Usually, in the theory of world systems, three levels are analyzed (Fig. 12a) - global, state (or national) and local.

2. Borders, state building,...

Rice. 12. Levels of analysis and types of political boundaries according to the theory of world systems.

State Global level. International

and administrative boundaries

as a single system, and the rapid growth of trans-

border flows of information, goods, capital, energy, pollutants, migrants and tourists, the expansion of the competences of international organizations and the growth of the influence of cross-border actors in various fields of activity (ethnic and social movements, non-governmental organizations) undermines the importance and changes the functions of state borders, which are becoming more "transparent". All researchers agree with this obvious fact - only their explanations of this process are different.

The followers of Wallerstein and Taylor and other growth theorists of global interdependence focus on the object

Section II. Political geography

positive economic factors - such as the deepening of the international division of labor, the improvement of communications and means of communication. They interpret the results of this process as the formation global networks in which relations of domination and subordination arise and the “center-periphery” structures are strengthened. Supporters of integration theories, on the contrary, emphasize the leading role in this process of subjective factors - political will and political institutions.

As you know, global economic factors lead to a relative decrease in the real sovereignty of states: some authors even believe that the nation-state (nation-state) is almost dying out. If in the past borders were divided into “profitable” and “unprofitable”, “natural” and “artificial”, which often served as the basis for territorial claims and even aggression, now the progress of European and North American integration has led to another extreme - the emergence of the myth of the erasure of state borders, these "scars of history". After all, there is a well-known aphorism: any attempt to destroy a myth is a way to create one or more new ones.

However, the internationalization of public life will never lead to a "borderless" world, or a world without borders. On the contrary, the success of this process directly depends on the fact that the world space is divided by state borders into “country-countries and, to an ever-increasing degree, -? also districts and cities, since the movement of capital requires a “potential difference” between territorial units in which different customs, fiscal, labor, environmental and other legislation and guarantees of local authorities are in force.

In other words, the world system needs inequality, and state borders serve to maintain and perpetuate them. But the borders themselves, in turn, are inconceivable without legitimation - the specific identity of the people living within them.

State borders are a bioethno-social invariant of public life, because it is impossible without borders, a kind of membrane that regulates the exchange between ethnic and / or state territory and the environment, without which this territory is threatened by chaos and "entropy" of human and material resources.

The picture of world economic relations is subject to rapid and frequent changes caused by technological revolutions in certain areas of activity, regional crises, political factors. Socio-cultural and geographical differences, including differences and identity evolution, change much more slowly and remain the most important factor of inertia, continuity and stability in world development. There is a dialectical relationship between changes in the world and national iconography. If the balance between innovations and traditions is violated, then this is often perceived as a threat to national identity and causes a paradoxical effect - strengthening the barrier function of borders, as happened, for example, in the late 1970s in Shah Iran. Nevertheless, there is an obvious trend towards globalization and homogenization of culture, which does not recognize borders and accelerates the evolution of identities.

State level. There are three approaches to the analysis of the relationship between the state and the nation, on which the view of the evolution of borders also depends:

Primordialist (or "progressivist"), whose supporters consider the state as a means and place for the realization of one of the fundamental human rights - the right of an ethnic group to self-determination;

Geopolitical, the foundations of which were developed by Giddens, according to which the state is a receptacle

authorities and it seeks to expand its influence in the context of globalization in order to take control of external factors affecting it, and for this it needs to strengthen the loyalty of its citizens;

Neo-liberal, whose supporters also emphasize the narrowness of the borders of any state in comparison with the scope of modern economic and other problems; No country can solve them alone. Consequently, no state can, relying only on its own forces, ensure a satisfactory level of well-being for its citizens. Moreover, in order to cope with challenges from outside (collapses in world markets,

disasters, etc.), national governments

compelled to resort to undemocratic methods of government.

The primordialist view of the ethnos and the state serves, in fact, as the basis for the concept of the nation-state (nationally homogeneous state).

Section P. Political geography

According to this point of view, the morphology and functions of state borders strongly depend on the loyalty of citizens to their state - the ethnic or political identity of the population on both sides, since many countries of the world are multinational and many peoples do not have their own statehood.

Adherents of the geopolitical approach, interpreting the problem of borders, also give priority to identity, albeit in an indirect form, emphasizing the role of a person's self-identification with the territory at different levels.

Neo-liberalists, on the other hand, believe that political boundaries and identities are being severely eroded in our time.

The problem of identity is inextricably linked with the analysis of the functions of the state. In the XX century. created in the last century, the ideal of the nation-state, uniting a more or less homogeneous ethnic group with common language and culture, legitimized by democratic election procedures, has faded greatly. The bloody events in many regions of the world showed its impracticability: there will always be more ethnic groups in the world than states, and many peoples historically share their territory with their neighbors. Nevertheless, as recent events in the former Yugoslavia have demonstrated, this ideal retains some of its appeal.

In our time, the nation-state is a political territorial unit with clear and recognized the international community borders within which the population has a certain political identity, formed, as a rule, by nationalist-minded elites.

According to Harvey, nationalism is a special type of territorial self-identification of a person and a territorial form of ideology. The goal of nationalism is to create an ethnic identity, an element of which are certain geographical boundaries. The inseparable classical triad of political geography "nation - territory - state" arose in Europe at the beginning of the 19th century.

A classic example of the creation of a nation-state "from above" on the basis of a national (political) identity is the history of modern France. This country has become a powerful European power only when the majority of its

2. Borders, state building,...

population, regardless of ethnic origin - Bretons, Alsatians, Catalans, Basques, Flemings, etc. - began to recognize themselves as French. This happened surprisingly recently - only in the 1870s, when:

The territory of the country was finally "fastened" by strong market ties thanks to a dense network of railways and other roads ("railway imperialism");

The emerging popular dailies presented the public with the image of a united French people;

A system of secondary human socialization was created through the introduction of universal conscription and a unified system of compulsory primary, and then secondary education with common programs for all and teaching at the normative French(for talking at school, for example, in Breton, students were punished);

Centralized administrative and ecclesiastical systems were introduced, in modern language, rotation of personnel throughout the country, and a native of Paris could be appointed to an administrative post in Brittany, and vice versa.

As the example of France shows, the use of a common language is one of the most important conditions for the formation of political and/or ethnic identity.

Contributing to its creation, the state develops its own iconography - a system of symbols, images, national holidays, regular parades, festivals, public ceremonies, manifestations and traditions - all that can help cement national solidarity and accentuate the differences between the population on both sides of the state border.

Iconography also includes a system of national stereotypes through which the country's history, territory and place of the country in the world, its "natural" allies and enemies are perceived, and through which the country's geopolitical doctrine is created. The English anthropologist B. Anderson aptly said that

nationalism is aimed inward to unite the nation, and outward to separate the nation and its territory from neighboring peoples.

National stereotypes necessarily include images of space: areas included in the state territory in

Section II. Political geography

national consciousness, receive some kind of codes, and many of them become national symbols, like Kosovo for Serbia and partly Sevastopol for Russia.

polls have shown that in all social groups more than two-thirds of Russians believe that Sevastopol should be Russian city(fortunately, according to other polls, up to 85% of respondents are convinced that Russia should not and cannot return the territories inhabited by the Russian-speaking population through the use of force or coercion). Nevertheless, the “mental” territory of Russians still includes Sevastopol. Georgian public opinion will clearly not agree in the foreseeable future not to consider Abkhazia an integral part of Georgia. The same thing happened in France. the French electorate has always considered Alsace and Lorraine to be part of France. However, he refused in the 1950s to consider as French territory Algeria, which made it easier for the government of General Charles de Gaulle to conclude the agreements in Evian, according to which this country gained independence.

Sometimes stereotypical ideas about territory develop into a territorial ideology that justifies territorial claims to neighbors and the need for additional “living space” (the concepts of “Great Serbia” and “Great Albania”, “Great Somalia” and “Great Hungary”, etc.). d.). Negative national stereotypes take root especially successfully if the national elites feel a threat to the territorial integrity and culture of their ethnic group, and these ideas become key elements of territorial identity. Ethnic and political identity sometimes plays much more big role in the creation of a stable state than the community of race, language, religion. The famous maxim attributed to the Italian statesman d'Agelio - "We created Italy, now we must create Italians" - retains its significance for the political elites of many new independent states. Without a political identity, the state turns into a mosaic of various ethno-cultural regions.

Although ethnic identity still occupies a central place in a person's territorial self-identification, its role is gradually declining. Until now, it is sometimes believed that every citizen should have a single ethnic identity and live in his own nation-state. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that many, if not most of us, identify ourselves with many territorial and/or ethnic communities at once. The system of territorial identities can be

2, Borders, state building,...

put in the form of nesting dolls. Thus, in EASTERN Ukraine, specialists count up to six levels of ethnic and territorial identity (Soviet, Russian, Ukrainian, and several regional ones).

Since national, ethnic, regional and local identities often overlap and many are dormant, various political actors (central and local authorities, parties, leaders) compete to attract as many supporters as possible, trying to activate existing or "wake up" identities.

The relationship between the various ethnic and territorial levels and their levels is subject to rapid changes in our time, which inevitably weakens the stability of the world system of political boundaries.

According to the structuralist theory of the function of the

states have now become much more complicated. It has become a link between the integrating world economy and the place where a person’s daily life takes place, he lives and works, a kind of buffer that softens the blows of the global economic element on employment and the well-being of specific settlements.

However, the container state is leaking more and more, being subjected to pressure both “from above*” and “from below”. Pressure "from above" is predominantly economic in nature and is associated with a decrease in the state's ability to influence the activities of transnational corporations, financial and other conditions for the functioning of its economy, which are formed on the global and macro scale. regional levels. Pressure from below, from the level of districts, cities and other settlements, is mainly caused by the growing activity of ethnic and regional movements that develop identities that compete with the official state. The nation-state is thus now only one of the five levels of the world system, although still the most significant (Fig. 116).

Now there are two other, intermediate levels at which there are factors that are increasingly affecting the functions of political borders and the situation in border zones, although to varying degrees in various parts world, - macro-regions (consisting of groups of countries and their parts) and regions (within countries).

Section II. Political geography

The global economy depends on the existence of not only state borders. Globalization processes create new identities. The most famous of them is taking shape in Western Europe, where economic integration is developing most successfully. At the same time, the strengthening of the supranational institutions of the EU and the creation of a common European identity is

in parallel with the creation of the "Europe of Regions".

This process is expressed in broad decentralization and regionalization throughout the EU, based on old regional ethnic and regional identities. They are associated not so much with administrative divisions as with long-abolished historical provinces, whose borders were formed in the pre-capitalist past. Cross-border regions, such as the famous Regio Basilensis (Basel region), attract special attention of EU decision-makers and are endowed with special powers. Using them, the authorities of cross-border regions, having their own budgets, are turning into independent subjects of political activity. This trend further weakens the role of state borders, some of the functions of which are transferred to macro-regional borders (of the entire EU), the other part - to regional ones, which contributes to the transformation of the entire system of world borders.

Macro-regional level: the example of Europe. The content of the most significant macro-regional identity - Western European - has long occupied theorists, including geographers. Although the European identity is still relatively weak and its content, as evidenced by the sociological data of the Eurobarometer magazine, varies from country to country, pan-European iconography is being actively introduced in the countries of the European Union. The prefix "euro-" has already become familiar to residents of the EU countries: this is the name of the single currency in force since January 1; an hour's high-speed train delivers passengers through the Channel Tunnel from London to Paris, where they have the opportunity to go to Europe's only amusement park in Brussels, they can see the exact models of famous architectural monuments from all EU countries, the pan-European newspaper "Europe" is distributed everywhere, etc. .d.

No one doubts where the western borders pass with the eastern ones, and partly with the southern ones, the situation is much worse. Which countries have a sufficient set of characteristics to claim the true

2. Borders, state building, ...

and which are not? In practice, it was determined in the 1990s by the prospects for membership of the former socialist countries in the EU and NATO.

It is no coincidence that almost all newly independent states are trying to prove their belonging to Europe by revising history, referring to politicians, writers, cultural figures of the past - in a word, using all possible arguments. Thus, some Ukrainian ideologists are convinced that Ukraine is an integral part of Central Europe. First president of an independent Ukrainian Republic in city, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR

Hrushevsky wrote that "the Ukrainian people belong to the Western European cultural circle not only thanks to historical connections, but by virtue of the very Ukrainian national character” [op. by: Ukrainian statehood ..., 1996, p. 156].

According to some ideologists, in order to become a

As a truly European state, Ukraine needs to quickly disengage from its eastern neighbor: they believe that Ukraine and Russia have neither common roots nor common interests. Moreover, only the Ukrainians - an ancient and truly Slavic and, therefore, European people, and the Russians, a late mixture of Slavic tribes with Finno-Ugric and especially Turkic-Mongolian elements, forcibly imposed their Asian backwardness on Ukrainians. Such arguments are also typical for discussions in other countries of Central and Eastern Europe (Miller, 1997J.

Three countries (Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary) in 1997, despite the stormy protests of Russia, were admitted to NATO. Many more, including Bulgaria and the Baltic states, lined up in a long line. The top candidates for EU membership have been announced: these are the same Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, as well as Slovakia and Estonia. If they are indeed adopted by the EU soon, they will have to comply with the strict measures of control over illegal migration that exist in the countries that have signed the Schengen Agreement, accept restrictions on foreign trade with third countries, etc. Poland and the Czech Republic have already introduced a visa regime for Russian citizens, Hungary is going to do it soon.

In other words, new barriers may arise on the eastern borders of the new EU members, their borders will become much less transparent, and the split of Europe into at least two macro-regions may be fixed, although the borders between them are shifting to the east. In this case, dramatic collisions will develop. So, if Romania joins the EU, it will be forced to

Section II. Political geography

close their border with Moldova, which does not agree well with the concept of a single Romanian nation, preached both in Bucharest and in Chisinau (Moldovan schoolchildren are now studying the history and geography of all Romania, and not just their own country).

Accessible and understandable to everyone, Huntington's theory explains the existence of stable geopolitical faults in the world, coinciding with the boundaries between civilizations - the largest geocultural taxa. Following Huntington, Y. Gal-identified seven specific

macroregions and put forward the hypothesis that the main flows of goods and services, labor and capital move within these large areas and do not cross their borders, which serve as the main cultural "watersheds" of the modern world. An extensive discussion both in the domestic and foreign press has already shown quite clearly that Huntington's concept interprets the realities of the modern world too simply and does not correspond to reality. Moreover, it is politically dangerous, because it justifies the revival of the old geopolitics of the power of the years, leads to the absolutization and perpetuation of the current and historically transient cultural and political boundaries. However, it is hard to deny that

there are state borders that coincide with contrasting ethnic, cultural and linguistic boundaries, and that they are distinguished by strong barrier functions and conflict, are often frontal.

Thus, the borders between Orthodox and Muslim regions are particularly conflict-prone (for example, in Bosnia and other regions of the former Yugoslavia, in Cyprus, the Caucasus). It is also difficult to deny the historical role played between Eastern and Western Christianity in Europe, although it cannot be turned into a new geopolitical watershed, no less hermetic than the notorious “iron during the war years”.

As early as 1962, the American political scientist K. Bouldigg singled out a special kind of boundaries between macroregions - critical granites.

They develop in cases where major powers seek to protect their real or imaginary interests outside their state territory.

Boulding's concept is related to the concepts of sphere of influence and sphere of vital interests. So, before the collapse of the USSR and its system

2. Borders, state building, ...

Each power has its own radius of action abroad, tacitly more or less recognized by the international community, limiting the area of ​​its special sensitivity, in which it does not tolerate certain actions of other states. The Monroe Doctrine, which turned the whole of Latin America into the "backyard" of the United States, or the so-called Brezhnev Doctrine are examples of concepts that justified critical boundaries in the recent past. The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, which nearly caused the Third world war, or the military intervention of the USSR in Afghanistan at the end of 1979 served as irrefutable evidence of the effectiveness of these doctrines.

Moscow's extremely painful reaction to NATO's eastward expansion shows that special sensitivity within the old critical boundaries still exists, even if these pains are phantom pains (similar to the pain that a person may experience with an already amputated leg). In Russia, the psychology of “surrounded” is historically strong - fears of being surrounded on all sides by hostile or unfriendly states, of receiving frontal borders that are unsafe in military-strategic terms.

One of the most unfavorable scenarios for Moscow is the formation of the so-called Balto-Pontic belt from the Baltic to the Black Sea directly beyond its western borders, separating it from Europe. The possibility of such a development of the situation was clearly visible in 1996-1999. But much, if not the main thing, depends here on Russia itself.

district level. State identity is eroded due to the action of numerous factors and within state borders. It is quite obvious that

the concept of the nation state, developed in the specific conditions of Western Europe in the 19th century. and implying the creation of a single homogeneous nation, united by a common language and culture, economic ties and a legal system operating within clear and secure boundaries, cannot be applied to most countries of the world,

because they are multinational and

we and they lack social and cultural prerequisites

Section II. Political geography

merging their various specific parts into a stable unitary state.

In many cases, state identity is not identical with ethnic identity, as, for example, in Quebec (Canada): it is more correctly called political identity. In many countries, this identity is weak, if it exists at all, which is directly related to the integrity of their territory and the inviolability of borders. Ethnic identity is not always associated with the political one imposed in a number of countries in Asia and Africa from above by the colonial authorities. Many attempts to create a political identity in multinational states have failed or been stopped at a certain stage by new trends in coma and cultural development, such as in the former Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, Belgium, where ethnic identities have become much stronger than political,

Many territorial claims and the problems of disputed borders are justified by the right of nations to self-determination, regarded as one of the most important liberal ideals and human rights. Demands for self-determination and revision of boundaries rely on bizarre combinations social representations based on ethnolinguistic rifts that already existed before the creation of nations and the economic and political interests of elites seeking to manipulate identities.

A simple political formula follows from this:

if there is no stable political identity, there are no stable borders, no stable state territory, no stable state as a whole.

The reality of dozens of Third World countries confirms its validity. In many countries, fragile political identities cannot compete with conflicting ethnic identities.

One of the countless evidences of the absence of "eternal" identities, even in stable and highly developed countries, is the recent success in the elections of the Northern League in the northern regions of Italy, which raised the issue of separating the new country of Padania from the Italian state. Indeed, the leaders of the League asked their constituents, why should the wealthier northern Italians subsidize the relatively backward South out of their own pockets, just because they and their southern compatriots call themselves Italians? If so, why should all Italians live in the same state? In September 2000, the government of the largest and richest region of Lombardy acted

2. Borders, state building....

lo with the initiative to hold a regional referendum in the spring of 2001. It was assumed that the inhabitants of the region would give its authorities the go-ahead to negotiate with the central government for a sharp expansion of powers, which could cause the transformation of Italy from a formally unitary state into a loose federation.

Local (local) level. The creation of political and ethnic identity cannot be presented solely as a process completely regulated by political elites, who believe that they act in the interests of the entire population, and directed “from top to bottom”. This process is bilateral, and local territorial collectives play a significant role in the formation and consolidation of the state. URL:- http://www.muiv.ru/vestnik/pdf/eu/eu_2013_4_63_68.pdf
6. Tkhagapsoev Kh.G., Gatiatullina E.R. Identity: to the problems of methodology // Scientific Thought of the Caucasus. North Caucasian Scientific Center of the Higher School of the Southern Federal University. Issue. No. 4 (64). - Rostov-on-Don, 2010. - S. 16-23

Reviews:

12.11.2015, 11:22 Adibekyan Hovhannes Alexandrovich
Review: Adibekyan Hovhannes Alexandrovich. The article is devoted to the consideration of the factor of attachment, love of people, social groups to the place of their residence, the territory of the location of their ancestors, to the places of their burial. Nature, the climatic factor, natural resources, and the nature of labor also bind. Love for the familiar land will appear as a factor rallying people (“fellowship”), in addition to many others, where nationality, specialty, composition of acquaintances and friends, etc. This attachment can take on a political content, become a partisan factor. Everything that is written is interesting, addressed to those who have little idea of ​​it, or even do not take it into account. The article is worth publishing. But it is worth briefly adding that in addition to the "earthly identification" that interested us, there are its opposites: emigration for the sake of employment, departure for the sake of entrepreneurship, resettlement of refugees, eviction from the state, departures due to fear of legal persecution. Then the approach will not appear one-sided.

12.11.2015, 23:37 Kolesnikova Galina Ivanovna
Review: The article is written on a current topic. It is built logically, harmoniously, in compliance with all the requirements for scientific articles. Visible big job scientific leader. It has undoubted scientific novelty. recommended for publication.

11.12.2015, 14:28 Nazarov Ravshan Rinatovich
Review: The problem of identity is a very important range of issues of an interdisciplinary nature. Interest in this problem is manifested from the side of philosophy, psychology, cultural studies, and practically the entire spectrum of social and humanitarian knowledge. The authors managed to reveal the problem from the point of view of modern regionalist approaches. The author's approach regarding the causes and consequences of gerontomorphism is somewhat controversial, but this is the author's position. The article can be recommended.

E. V. Eremina. Regional identity in the context of sociological analysis

E. V. EREMINA

REGIONAL IDENTITY IN THE CONTEXT OF SOCIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

EREMINA Ekaterina Vitalievna, Associate Professor of the Department of Public Administration and Sociology of the Region, Penza State University, Candidate of Sociological Sciences.

Keywords: regional identity, regional identification, region, social space, territorial communities

key words: regional identity, regional identification, region, social space, territorial community

Regional identity is an objective state based on a reflexive sense of personal identity and integrity, continuity in time and space. Regional identity can be viewed as a structural formation with its own content, measure of stability and resistance to outside influence. This state implies a harmonious combination of individual selfhood and the inclusion of the individual in the regional society. Modern theorists call the search for identity as one of the main problems that arose at the end of the 20th century. Its relevance for the leading countries of the world is due to the restructuring of the world system, the collapse of the USSR and the intensification of integration processes in Western Europe 1 .

The processes taking place in the world are usually described by the concept of "globalization". open information space, rapid development networking and high mobility people were radically changed before the eyes of one generation by the attachments of the person included in these processes and his ideas about his place in the world. Globalization, which has caused an increase in the uncertainty of social relations, has led to an identity crisis in all developed countries of the world. The "national" (oriented to the country of origin) component in the system of identification landmarks began to lose its former normative significance for positioning the individual as a full member of the political community. As a result, the stable pillars of the nation-state continued to erode.

Therefore, the “place identity” turns out to be an all the more significant system of coordinates for many people and an important psychological compensator for such a blurring of landmarks: it can support the emotional or other symbolic supports necessary for a person’s self-identification. Local identity (self-identification of a person with his small homeland, with his place of residence) is established in the open information space in the course of conscious, and sometimes unconscious opposition to impersonal global symbols. Regionalization of the political space (growth of the importance of regions within the national state and macroregions) of supranational associations as subjects political process puts forward regional identity as one of the important starting points in the conceptualization of the socio-political and socio-cultural dynamics of the modern world 2 .

The crisis of identity also seized Russia, which was due, on the one hand, to a radical change in the principles of organizing economic and political life, the geographical parameters of the state in the early 1990s. 20th century and related to this change in the status of the country in the system of international relations. On the other hand, it was associated with a change in the basic societal values ​​of culture, which determines the goals of social functioning and the system of behavioral norms. The identity crisis is global in nature, although in each country its manifestations are specific and have different social consequences. Important manifestations of the identification crisis in Russia are the ideological split of society in the 1990s, reflected in the assertion of the thesis “We do not know the society in which we live”, the search for a national idea adequate to the new socio-economic conditions; blurring of socio-spatial identity along the axis "country - macro-region - region - local settlement".

Regional identity as an object of sociological analysis is characterized by multi-vector and semantic diversity, which implies a comprehensive interdisciplinary study of this social phenomenon. First, it is necessary to note the influence of the physical space (natural landscape, climate) on the regional consciousness, the general outlook of the inhabitants and the idea of ​​community in the territory. The next most important projection of the consideration of regional identity is associated with the symbolic development and representation of space, the consolidation of the region by establishing boundaries and forming a mental map 3 , as a result of which there is a “symbolic” connection of residents with the space, a community is formed 4 .

The studies of domestic sociologists prove that state, administrative and ethnic boundaries play a significant role in the formation and subsequent dynamics of regional identity 5 . Regional self-awareness and regional identity of the population are important factors in distinguishing regions (subjects of the Russian Federation) as unified territorial, socio-economic, socio-cultural systems. Accordingly, the differences in the cultural, socio-economic, political life of the subjects of the Russian Federation for regional development determine the features of the formation of regional identity.

Regional identity is also determined by the history of the development of cultural and social regional space, accompanied by an analysis of value-colored and emotional representations (for example, “primary homeland” (“fatherland”) 6 , “small homeland” 7 , the territory of residence of a separate ethnic group or people (often indigenous) ), as well as the collective history and features regional culture eight . On the basis of this, ideas about the uniqueness and originality of the region are formed.

The results of a number of studies show that regional identity is a real, not a virtual phenomenon that reflects the continuity of the self-consciousness of local communities and is not the result of a compensatory reaction produced by the inferiority complex of the “provincial” in front of the “prestigious” capitals (where the inferiority complex is developed, self-consciousness is reduced). The determinants of identity are regional in nature and cannot be reduced to the characteristics of age or level of education, and tradition is not the only source of identity formation.

Cultural contrasts, including those between neighboring regions, are quite significant. At the same time, relative cultural homogeneity is observed within the regions. Such a structured space is recognized by the population and is represented by regional symbols, the cultivation of the traditions of the existence of territories in history.

The regional identity combines aspects of space itself and internal energy, the “strength” of identity, where the term “local patriotism” is appropriate. In this case, regional identity is associated with common values(e.g. regional pride) with an emphasis on the dynamics of the influence of culture on the formation of regional identity and political actions and attitudes towards one's place of residence 9: quality of life, infrastructure, education, health care, work, participation in socio-political and cultural activities, etc. d.

The significance of socio-spatial (territorial) identification in the regional aspect is also determined by the fact that, due to incomparably expanded opportunities (including due to scientific and technological progress and other factors), the living environment of socio-territorial communities becomes not just some given condition of their collective life , requiring only more or less adequate adaptation, and the subject of social design, the use of the total potential of the territory to improve the level and quality of life 10 . Consequently, regional identity is also associated with various regional success stories (ideas about the future of the region). These may be stories about the economic revival of the region, about the creation comfortable conditions to live and work in the region. The formation of identity becomes a priority of regional policy and socio-economic development, the main goals of which are to increase the capitalization of the region and attract investment to the region (implementation of cultural, social, sports projects).

Thus, we can see that, depending on the research interest, knowledge about certain processes, the context of research, regional identity can be considered in a very wide range of topics: from the symbolic development of space to regional culture, from the value basis of securing a social community to the use regional uniqueness in the pragmatic political goals of the elites.

It seems to us necessary to clearly distinguish between the concepts of external and internal identification: if we are talking about the external identification of a region, then it can be designated as a process of recognizing and attributing regional identity from the outside (in a broader sense). social space), while the essence of internal identification lies in the independent reflexive establishment and appropriation by the subject (residents of the region) of their own social properties and characteristics of the region (historical, political, economic, cultural, etc.). The surrounding (objective) world determines the inner world of the subject. A. Tashnel, the founder of the theory of social identification, wrote that social worlds influence the subject's individual way of seeing the world 11 . Self-identification, which is expressed primarily in identifying oneself with a community, is a subjective resultant based on objectively existing identifications with the features of a given community. This applies to any of the components of social identity, especially to the regional one.

In a stable society with a stable national (civil) identity, regional identity does not come to the fore in the hierarchy of territorial identities. Under normal conditions, it manifests itself in the formation of a certain system of values ​​and norms of behavior of the inhabitants of the region, regardless of ethnicity. In the context of a weakening or crisis of national (common civil) identity, regional-ethnic identity can compete with it and, having acquired a political connotation, jeopardize the unity of the country.

From the point of view of the sociological approach, in our opinion, the most adequate is the definition of regional identity as a result of cognitive, value, emotional processes awareness of the individual's belonging to his regional community, manifested in creative activities for the benefit of his region, strengthening his place and role in the system of territorial communities, shaping the image of the region.

Regional identity is established as the result of two processes: unification and differentiation. In order to identify a regional community, it is necessary to “define” it for oneself (at least on an emotional level) and at the same time separate it from other communities. Therefore, the true meaning of regional identity is associated with all the similarities and differences, associations and oppositions of public life. At the same time, we emphasize that it is necessary to distinguish between the mechanisms of positive regional identification (personal self-identification, which has a positive evaluative background) and negative regional identification (rejection, negative attitude to their regional affiliation). The result of negative self-identification, as a rule, is a negative identity, which implies a negative assessment by the subject of his socio-territorial position.

The positive / negative vector of the cognitive, value, emotional components in the structure of regional identity naturally manifests itself in its activity component, i.e. in certain models of behavior of members of the regional community in relation to their region, for example, actively work for the benefit of the region based on long-term plans for staying in it; focus on solving personal problems and survival tasks; strive to change the region to one that will make the individual happier and give him not only a higher standard of living, but also a sense of security and reliability, the possibility of self-realization. Based on this, in our opinion, it can be argued that the first of the models will undoubtedly lead to an increase in the human capital of the territory and the efficiency of returns from it, increasing the competitiveness and sustainability of the region's development. The second model will most likely lead to the stagnation of the region, and the third - to its degradation. In reality, there may be more such behavior patterns.

Thus, the active promotion of the values ​​of regional supra-ethnic positive identity, in our opinion, ensures the consolidation of the population of the territories and the federation as a whole, and thereby contributes to an increase in the level of regional and national competitiveness. Despite the obvious practical relevance of the problems of constructing and maintaining regional identity, the specificity of regional identification has not yet received due attention. theoretical analysis. The non-ethnic, actually general civil, but in its subcultural, local context, the content of regional identification often remains outside the attention of domestic scientists. However, without a comprehensive analysis of the processes of regional identification, one cannot hope to solve the most important tasks of the current stage of the country's socio-economic development.

NOTES

1 See: D. Trenin, Integration and Identity: Russia as a “New West”. M., 2006. S. 15-55.

2 See: Semenenko I.S. Identity in the subject field of political science // Identity as a subject of political analysis: Sat. Art. according to the results of the All-Russian scientific-theor. conf. M.: IMEMO RAN, 2011. C. 11.

3 See: Nozhenko N.M., Yargomskaya N.B. In search of a new regional community: possible perspective consideration of federal districts // Political science: identity as a factor of politics and the subject of political science. M.: INION RAN, 2005. P. 123.

4 See: Nazukina M.V. Border in the discourse of the identity of regional communities in Russia // Vestn. Perm. university Ser.: Political science. 2007. No. 1. S. 11-17.

5 See: Kuveneva T.N., Manatov A.G. Formation of spatial identities in the border region // Sotsiol. research 2003. No. 7. S. 84.

6 See: Tishkov V.A. Requiem for an Ethnos: Studies in Socio-Cultural Anthropology. M.: Nauka, 2003. S. 444.

7 See: Krylov M.P. Regional Identity in the Historical Core of European Russia // Sotsiol. research 2005. No. 3. S. 13.

8 See: Sukhanov V.M. On some issues of the history of the formation of regional identity in Russia // Vestn. Bashkir. state university 2008. No. 4. S. 1071-1079.

9 See: Guboglo M.N. Identification of identity: ethnosociological essays. M.: Nauka, 2003. S. 399.

10 See: Markin V.V. Regional identification and social modeling Russian regions: the problem of sociological interpretation // Regional sociology in Russia: Sat. sociological materials. research / resp. ed. V.V. Markin; Institute of Sociology RAS. M.: Exlibris-Press, 2007. S. 8.

11 See: Ivanova N.L., Rumyantseva T.V. Social identity: theory and practice. M.: Publishing House of SSU, 2009. S. 32.

Received 05.04.11.

Similar information.

Regional identity in terms of geopolitics

In Russia, as in the world at large, the region is becoming an important level of political action and dialogue, where national, supranational and global forces meet local demands. Regions play an increasingly significant role in geopolitical processes. Russian regions have entered the processes of globalization, and these processes are extremely uneven and competitive, which means the emergence of new opportunities and problems for Russia.

The problems of regionalism are today at the center of the political life of many countries. Back in 1998, the European Parliament, taking into account the severity of these problems, adopted the "Charter of Regionalism", according to which the region is understood as a homogeneous space that has a physical-geographical, ethnic, cultural, linguistic community, as well as a community of economic structures and a common historical destiny. It is important to note that not all of these components must be present without fail, there will always be one or more dominant features. In each case, their combination gives a unique regional situation.

There is no universal definition of the term “region”; the division of space into regions depends on the area of ​​research and the formulated task. The definition of the boundaries of the region and its features in most cases depend on the goals and methodological basis of the study.

Regionalization processes taking place in different countries world, are the object of study in political, sociological, historical, philosophical literature. First of all, geopoliticians, sociologists and economists turned to the problems of regionalization, since this phenomenon is closely connected with globalization and the changes taking place in connection with this in the socio-political and economic spheres. There are various approaches to defining a region, each emphasizing some aspect of regionalism. Its content depends on what specific section of life in the region is actualized by this or that science.

At the same time, the most complete definition of the concept of "region" and its main features seems to be offered by the doctrine of European integral federalism based on the principles of an integrated interdisciplinary approach. Its essence lies in the fact that an integrating political organism (for example, the European Union) interacts with politically organized territories, that is, with local, regional associations, self-governing and autonomous. This approach does not require cultural, economic, linguistic homogeneity, unlike American model. European federalism is based on the unification of different levels of identity that do not contradict, but complement each other, that is, on the unification of regions.

In political science, the region is considered as one of the units of the territorial structure of the nation state, that is, at the subnational level, a cell of the grid of administrative-territorial division, where regional power institutions operate with certain competencies and appropriate financial resources for their implementation, regional political life takes place. In a broad sense, a region is defined as an institution or a system of institutions and organizations operating in a certain territory, which is a fragment of the territory of the state.

In regional studies, the concept of "region" is used in narrow sense to designate a territorial community within the administrative boundaries of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation, which is characterized by such features as integrity and manageability.

The geopolitical theory based on the spatial factor has as an object of study not only the whole Earth as a whole, but also its separate parts. A region in geopolitics is understood, firstly, as a part of the country's territory, which has a common natural, socio-economic, national-cultural and other conditions; secondly, a group of neighboring countries, which is a separate economic and geographical region, which has common features that distinguish this region from others. In this work, we will adhere to this definition of the region.

Let us briefly consider the influence of geopolitical factors on the transformation of the regional structure of the Russian Federation. The process of transformation of regional relations is an integral part of the transformation of Russian society and is a combination of various trends generated by a complex of geographical, socio-economic, political, ethno-cultural conditions. At present, it can be clearly stated that geopolitical factors are having an increasing impact on the processes taking place within a particular country, including the Russian Federation. Accordingly, these factors also affect the change in regional relations, and with the development of globalization processes, this impact becomes more and more significant.

The collapse of the USSR radically changed the political and legal status of regions, territories and autonomous entities. In the post-Soviet period, there is a contradictory process of folding the regional structure of the country. It includes, on the one hand, tendencies of decentralization - the redistribution of powers from federal to regional authorities, and, on the other hand, opposite processes strengthening the territorial integrity of the country and strengthening the administrative and managerial vertical. It cannot be argued that at present the search for an optimal model of the country's regional structure is close to completion. And this search is determined not only by the specifics of the state and its constituent regions, but also by geopolitical factors.

As you know, the process of regional development is characterized by a change in centralization trends, that is, consolidation and merging of regions and decentralization, respectively, their disintegration into parts, disconnection of territories. Both of these tendencies are natural and have objective grounds.

In states that have retained their territorial integrity, there are processes of autonomization of territories, an increase in the role of regions in the development of society. In this regard, the collapse of the USSR and centrifugal tendencies in the Russian Federation can partly be regarded as a manifestation of the process of global development due to historical regularity.

It should be noted that the processes of decentralization and regionalization are developing simultaneously and in parallel with the integration processes taking place at the interstate level. Integration is expressed in the creation of supranational political, financial and other organizations, unions, blocs, as well as in the formation of a global economic system subject to its own rules and institutions national economies. In this capacity, integration also contributes to the weakening of the territorial unity of states.

For the processes of globalization gaining strength, the destruction of the political and economic integrity of territorial entities that are not integrated into the system is characteristic. economic relations determined by transnational corporations, supranational and financial institutions and political blocs.

The integrative processes include the formation of a single global information space, as well as the spread of mass culture, which creates a system of universal meanings, ideals, and practices. The influence of this factor on the processes of regionalization is contradictory. As a result of the assimilation of universal meanings, ideals, practices, a person's identification of himself as a representative of a particular state is destroyed. Regional identity is also threatened, but at the same time, the processes of globalization and the spread of mass culture contribute to the growth of interest in local, ethnic characteristics.

Thus, the emerging geopolitical situation forms a whole range of problems related to the regional structure of the Russian Federation, the solution of which is possible by understanding the objective patterns of the development of global processes and taking them into account in the implementation of regional policy. This policy should not impede the formation of a regional identity, the growth of the independence of the regions, their ability to independently solve their internal problems.

Considering regional identity from the point of view of geopolitics, it is necessary to take into account the global political situation, which has increased the degree of influence on the development of regional phenomena. In recent years, there have been geographic changes on the European continent. political changes which had a significant impact on world political processes and affected the regions of Central and Eastern Europe, the territories of the former USSR. A new stage of the integration process has begun, and international relations have begun to go beyond the framework of interstate relations and acquire a diverse and multi-level character. This leads to the formation of other contours of regional identity. In this regard, the analysis of the perception of themselves and each other by peoples, countries and various groups of the population of a particular region is of particular importance.

Accordingly, the concepts of "identity" and "identification" have become one of the main topics of political science and practice. If earlier these categories were used mainly by psychologists, philosophers, sociologists and ethnologists, then political and sociocultural transformations in early XXI centuries, requiring systemic awareness, actualize identity as a political science problem and a condition for choosing a survival strategy and responding to new challenges. The growing political and economic globalization inevitably confronts Russia with the problem of finding a new regional identity in a changing world.

In any country in the world, the regional self-consciousness of the population is one of the important factors in distinguishing regions as unified territorial systems. The degree of development of regional self-consciousness is of particular importance for multi-ethnic countries with a federal type of government. Even in many unitary states of Europe, there is a phenomenon of a high level of self-identification of the population to one or another internal region, which is a consequence of the historical process of development of each state.

The processes of regionalization in the minds of society also take place in the Russian Federation. In fact, the phenomenon of regional identity for Russia is a fairly new phenomenon. The collapse of the USSR, the formation and development of the federal structure and a number of phenomena associated with transformation processes, to a large extent contributed to the isolation of Russian regions from each other in socio-economic, political and mental terms.

It is obvious that the formation of regional self-awareness has become a characteristic feature of the post-Soviet transformation of society. There are two opposing tendencies in society. On the one hand, a Russian common civic identity is gradually taking shape with its own set of consensus values. On the other hand, regionalization public consciousness, which was a reaction to the crisis of national identity that arose as a result of the collapse of the USSR. This process is interpreted differently by modern researchers. Some believe that regional values, along with ethno-national ones, replace the complex of values ​​of the Soviet period in the public mind. As a rule, regionalization is perceived by them as a temporary phenomenon characteristic of the transitional period of modernization of Soviet society. Others see a global process behind it, since the revival of regional identity is actively underway in European countries, where a united, but diverse and polycentric "Europe of regions" is being formed in place of nation-states.

In fact, the political changes in Russia, by their consequences, led to an identification crisis. Society and, above all, in the socio-cultural environment, faced with all the acuteness the main questions characteristic of periods of transformational change: “who are we?” and “where are we going?”. The lack of clear, unambiguous answers to these questions led to differentiation within Russian society, which caused the collapse of the former model of the identification system. This disintegration actualized the entire set of existing types of identities that fastened the framework of the former identification system, which led to the emergence of increased scientific interest in the problems of the country's regionalization and the mechanisms for identifying regional communities.

In this regard, the actualization of regional identity is understood as the process of forming the identification of the region, in the situation of the transformation taking place in it in order to stabilize the functioning of the socio-political system at the regional level.

The relevance of the problem is also determined by the fact that it is studied at the intersection of political science disciplines - political regionalism, political sociology, geopolitics and ethnopolitical conflictology, within which a comprehensive analysis of regional identity as an element of the political transformation of Russian society is carried out. This allows us to identify the mechanism of action of this process in the development of the country and determine its role in the consolidation of the system of state power in Russia. Based on this, the stated problem can be classified as one of the most theoretically and practically significant scientific topics within the framework of modern political science discourse.

The process of regional identification is expressed not in the replacement of some formal institutions of society by others, which usually takes place during a period of political transformation in most transitional countries that are undergoing democratic transition, but in their complete demolition, the introduction of informal rules and traditions, myths, foundations and customs that exist in the socio-cultural experience of the regional space.

This problem can best be analyzed on the example of the North Caucasus region, in which there is an overlap of a number of problems that have a strong influence on the regional political process. First, these are the problems and contradictions that arise in the relationship between the main political actors, which, in general, is typical of the process of regionalization taking place within the Russian Federation. Secondly, this is a region in which it is difficult to overcome the past Soviet experience, since many social issues have become acute in the North Caucasus, which have a significant impact on its modern political development. Thirdly, about 150 ethnic groups live here, representing almost the entire Russian ethnic area, and in this sense, the region is multi-ethnic and multi-confessional. Fourthly, the region is subject to the influence of both Western and Eastern cultural waves, which makes the Caucasus multicultural, fragmenting its single socio-cultural layer.

Certain geopolitical realities have developed in the North Caucasus, which should be understood in the context of global transformations occurring in the world and Russia. After all, it is part of the global and Russian geopolitical space, which significantly affects the nature of the phenomena taking place here. The region covers an area of ​​335 thousand square meters. km. and includes 10 subjects of the Russian Federation: Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories, Rostov Region, Adygea, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, North Ossetia, Ingushetia and Chechnya.

In my own way geopolitical position With North Caucasus it is difficult to compare any other corner of the world. It is no coincidence that the Caucasus is called the "solar plexus of Eurasia" (Yu.A. Zhdanov) and the "crossroads of geopolitical goals" (A.G. Zdravomyslov), it has a number of unique features that distinguish it from many other regions of the world. Today we have to state that at the geopolitical level, its strategic importance hard to overestimate. And therefore it is an attractive geopolitical object - a place of rivalry between many states.

The Caucasus is a zone of active interethnic and interfaith contacts. As a result of these relationships, groups with a complex identity were formed, the study of which is important both for revealing the mechanisms of their existence and for revealing the patterns of some ethnic, political and confessional processes in the region.

The problem of Caucasian identity is studied in detail in the works of A.Yu. Shadzhe, according to which it is a form of being of the peoples of the Caucasian society, which is formed on the basis of a certain way of life, in which there is a geographical constant. By Caucasian identity, the author understands "the ability of the Caucasian peoples to realize their socio-cultural unity, their belonging to the common and whole Caucasian world" .

To study the phenomenon of regional identity, it is necessary to present an analysis of explanatory models and conceptual approaches aimed at understanding and revealing its essence. In world science, there are many conceptual results of understanding this phenomenon, which is quite a traditional phenomenon for Western science. However, for a long time it was practically out of sight of Russian thought and still remains little studied. Apparently, this is due to the "novelty of the plot itself".

Without going into the analysis of foreign experience, let us briefly dwell on the Russian discourse. The specificity of the formation of a regional community in Russia, presented in the works of domestic authors, allows us to trace the features of regional identity. So, for some, regional identity is a set of cultural relations associated with the concept of "small homeland" or "the relationship of a person to his small homeland, to the land on which he was born or lives and works"; for others, it is a socio-psychological sense of belonging to a regional community, and at the same time, the boundaries of the region as a mental concept coincide with the boundaries of the community.

The study of "territorial identity" is carried out by N.A. Shmatko and Yu.L. Kachanov, according to which identity is the result of the identification "I am a member of a territorial community". It is assumed that for each individual with a fixed set of images of territories, the identification mechanism is constant. The authors point out that each individual has an image, which, together with the method of correlating (comparing, evaluating, distinguishing and identifying) the image of the “I” and the images of territorial communities, forms a mechanism of territorial identification. An important point here is the "scale" or the boundaries of the territorial community to which the individual feels involved: it can be a limited territory - a specific place (city, village, region) or much wider spaces - Russia, the CIS.

In the context of the problem under study, three collections are also of interest. scientific papers. The first - "Central Europe in search of a new regional identity" is devoted to the problem of the formation of a new regional identity of the countries of Central Europe. Based on specific material, the authors identified a trend towards a new intra-regional identification, and, in addition to considering the aspects common to the region of the formation of a new regional identity in the political, economic, cultural and ideological aspects, the work also contains an analysis of the situation in individual countries of the region.

The second one, "Center and Regional Identities in Russia", examines the role of regional identity in Russian politics and public life, the formation of post-Soviet regional identity, its relationship with other manifestations of identity, and mechanisms for the development of regional identity.

Within the framework of an interdisciplinary research approach - on the border of political science, regional studies, political geography and geopolitics, the third one was completed - "Regional self-awareness as a factor in the formation of political culture in Russia" .

Analytical review of existing research in domestic science allows us to conclude that the analysis of this phenomenon is carried out mainly in the framework of two main approaches: sociocultural - the study of differences in self-consciousness national formations and political - the study of differences in the political development of the territories and the electoral preferences of their population.

The essence of the sociocultural approach boils down to the fact that the formation of this type of identity occurs "from below" and is a consequence of the crisis of the "system of political identification at the national level" . This point of view implies that regional identities are temporary and transient, because, according to the authors, after the revival of a common civil identity in the mass consciousness, regional communities will cease to play a significant role.

Some authors propose to consider the emergence and development of political (including regional) identity as a result of the strategies of political actors, due to which the identities existing in society are “translated” into the political agenda.

Within the framework of the second approach, the main attention is paid to the purposeful construction of regional identity "from above" and the focus is on "the politics of regional identity", as well as "agents of the formation of regional identity" .

Based on the prevailing understanding of identity, regional identity can be viewed as a key element in constructing a region as a socio-political space; it can serve as a basis for a special perception of national political problems. It can be assumed that regional identity arises as a result of the crisis of other identities and to a large extent is a reflection of the historically emerging center-peripheral relations within states and macroregions. Regional identity is a kind of key to constructing a region as a socio-political and institutional space.

So, regional identity is a part of social identity, in the structure of which two main components are usually distinguished: cognitive - knowledge, ideas about the characteristics of one's own group and awareness of oneself as a member of it; and affective - assessment of the qualities of one's own group, the significance of membership in it. In the structure of regional identification, in our opinion, there are the same two main components - knowledge, ideas about the features of one's own "territorial" group and awareness of oneself as a member of it, and assessment of the qualities of one's own territory, its significance in the global and local coordinate system.

What does this mean for a population united by a common place of residence? The answer is obvious - there is a regional community. There is one more thing to be aware of. important side the essence of the region, which determines the specifics of identification. Usually the "naturalness" of a region is proved by similar geographical or cultural parameters that "naturally" separate this region from neighboring territories.

It should be noted that the declaration of a set of territories as a "region" is possible only if there are certain signs: common historical destinies, peculiar only to this group of cultural features (material and spiritual), geographical unity of the territory, some general type of economy. In other words, for regional identification, a fundamentally important concept is the idea of ​​territorial ties that arise on the basis of joint or neighborly residence of members of social groups of various sizes and cultural identification.

Analyzing the components of this type of identity, in addition to the indicated factors, scientists distinguish the dichotomy "we-them". Based on this opposition, two main components are distinguished in the structure of identity: autostereotypes - a set of attributive features about the actual or imaginary specific features of one's own group; and heterostereotypes - a set of attributive features about other groups.

An analysis of the literature suggests that the allocation of types of regional identity remains controversial. It seems to be a fairly complete and large-scale classification proposed by R.F. Turovsky. The author identifies six types: republican identity, which is typical for the titular ethnic groups of the republics and clearly dominates over the all-Russian one; supranational republican identity uniting the titular people, the Russian population and other peoples living in the republics; Russian regional identity, which is tied to the subjects of the federation and is dual, i.e. is combined with the all-Russian identity; Russian regional identity, which is associated with sub-ethnic communities; Russian regional identity tied to large geographical communities (for example, Siberia); regional and ideological identity, which is determined by the political and ideological, electoral orientation of the regions.

The next important aspect of the problem is the realization that the formation and development of regional identity presupposes the presence of three types of preconditions. The first - cultural character: identity can be rooted in a particular regional history, traditions, myths, language, religion, etc. The second one is of a socio-economic nature: identity can be rooted in inter-regional disproportions in the levels of economic and social development. The third is the geographical factor: the degree of peripherality or sharp differences between the country's macro-regions (North-South, East-West).

When characterizing national identity, as a rule, one distinguishes between its external and internal functions. The first lies in its ability to delineate territorial space and justify economic and political institutions. The latter are manifested in the fact that it serves as the basis of socialization, a link between individuals and classes, a way and means of localizing oneself in the world. It seems that these arguments can be applied to regional identity. Moreover, in our opinion, regional and national identities can be complementary due to the complexity and plurality of political identities. At the same time, they are capable of being opposed to each other, due to which a regional identity, under certain conditions, can develop into a national one.

As noted above, within the framework of the modern scientific paradigm, the study of the phenomenon under consideration can only be complex, using various approaches. The concept of regional identity has an interdisciplinary content and is based on the scientific heritage of a number of sciences. When analyzing the processes of development of regional identity in modern Russia it is necessary to use four approaches: culturological (the processes of modern cultural genesis in the Russian regions and their political consequences); political science, including ethno-political science (regional political process, its specificity and significance for the national political process, the correlation of regional and national in Russian politics); electoral-geographical (identification of political, ideological, value differences between regions by analyzing the geography of elections); sociological (analysis of the correlation of the regional and the national in the views of Russians in various regions). In general, agreeing with such a formulation of the issue, in our opinion, one should also add a geopolitical approach to the analysis of regional identity.

Summing up, it is important to emphasize that the processes of regionalization and changes in the political map of the world have led to the problem of determining the essence of the phenomenon of identity. The discussions that unfolded around the integration of the world community, the emergence of transnational associations, the formation of global economic corporations, the development of telecommunications technologies require a rethinking of the identity phenomenon.

The political transformation processes that took place, first in the USSR, and then in the Russian Federation, had the main goal of making the transition to a democratic society. Meanwhile, the changes led to the stratification of society and caused a crisis that led to the actualization of many elements, including regional identity.

The study of regions today is carried out in different directions: geopolitical (in the context of the problems of globalization and regionalization), sociological (the activities of certain social groups are analyzed), historical (the specific features of life in a given territory are described), demographic (the problems of population resettlement, placement of labor resources, nature and dynamics of migration). In this list of areas of regional research, another important component has recently emerged - the analysis of regional identity.

Thus, regional identity in the system of strategic analysis of the territory is a factor of socio-economic development and an element political management. At the same time, it is an important factor in the Russian political process. Among the types of identity, it occupies a special place and is associated with certain territories that define special forms. life practices, pictures of the world, symbolic images.

Today it is legitimate to say that the regionalization of public consciousness is increasing in the country, which is stimulated by the processes taking place both in the center and in the regions. In transforming states, identity is dynamic and depends on new social relations and alliances, including at the regional level.

region geopolitical identity

Notes:

• 1. See: Fadeeva A. Federalist model of the European Union / A. Fadeeva // World economy and international relations. - 2000. - No. 6. - S. 26-28.
• 2. See: Busygina I.M. Political regional studies / I.M. Busygin. - M.: ROSSPEN, 2006. - S. 7.
• 3. See: Regional studies: Tutorial/ Rev. ed. SOUTH. Volkov. - Rostov-n / D: Phoenix, 2004. - S. 27.
• 4. See: Geopolitics. Popular encyclopedia / Under the general. ed. V. Manilova. - M.: TERRA - Book Club, 2002. - S. 485.
• 5. See: Turovsky R.F. Regional Identity in Modern Russia // Russian Society: Formation of Democratic Values? / R.F. Turovsky. - M.: Gandalf, 1999. - S. 87-88.
• 6. See: Shadzhe A.Yu. The phenomenon of Caucasian identity // Scientific Thought of the Caucasus. SKNTS VSh. - 2002. - No. 1. - S. 36-45; Shadzhe A.Yu. Ethnic values ​​as a philosophical problem. / A.Yu. Shadzhe. - M.: RFO. - Maykop: LLC "Quality", 2005.
• 7. Shadzhe A.Yu. Ethnic values ​​as a philosophical problem / A.Yu. Shadzhe. - M.: RFO. - Maikop: LLC "Quality", 2005. - S. 80.
• 8. See: Petrov N. Formation of Regional Identity in Modern Russia // Center and Regional Identities in Russia / Ed. Gelman V., Hopf T. / N. Petrov. - St. Petersburg: Summer Garden, 2003. - S. 125.
• 9. See: Krylov M.P. Regional identity in the historical core of European Russia / M.P. Krylov // sociological research. - 2005. - No. 3. - S. 13.
• 10. Guboglo M.N. Identity identification: Ethnosociological essays / M.N. Googlo. - M.: Nauka, 2003. - S. 399.
• 11. See: Nozhenko N.M. In Search of a New Regional Community: A Possible Perspective for Considering Federal Districts // Political Science: Identity as a Factor of Politics and the Subject of Political Science / N.M. Nozhenko, N.B. Yargomskaya. - M.: INION RAN, 2005. - S. 123.
• 12. See: Shmatko N.A. Territorial identity as a subject of sociological research / N.A. Shmatko, Yu.L. Kachanov. // Sociological research. - 1998. - No. 4. - S. 94-101.
• 13. See: Central Europe in search of a new regional identity / Sat. articles. Rep. ed. Yu.S. Novopashin. - M.: Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2000.
• 14 See: Center and Regional Identities in Russia / Ed. Gelman V., Hopf T. - St. Petersburg: Summer Garden, 2003.
• 15. See: Regional identity as a factor in the formation of Russia's political culture. - M.: MONF, 1999.
• 16. See: Meleshkina E.Yu. Regional identity as a component of the problems of the Russian political space // Regional self-consciousness as a factor in the formation of the political culture of Russia / E.Yu. Meleshkin. - M.: MONF, 1999. - S. 131.
• 17. See: Gelman V. Regional identity: Myth or reality // Regional identity as a factor in the formation of the political culture of Russia / V. Gelman, E. Popova. - M.: MONF, 1999. - S. 188.
• 18. See: Gelman V.Ya. Strategies of regional identity and the role of political elites (on the example of Novgorod region) // Regional processes in modern Russia / V.Ya. Gelman. - M.: INION RAN, 2003. - S. 32.
• 19. See: Oracheva OI Regional identity: myth or reality? // Regional self-consciousness as a factor in the formation of the political culture of Russia / O.I. Oracheva. - M.: MONF, 1999. - S. 36-43.
• 20. See: Drobizheva L. Russian, Ethnic and Republican Identity: Competition or Compatibility // Center and Regional Identities in Russia / Ed. Gelman V., Hopf T. / L. Drobizheva. - St. Petersburg: Summer Garden, 2003. - S. 47-76.
• 21. See: Turovsky R.F. Regional Identity in Modern Russia // Russian Society: Formation of Democratic Values? / R.F. Turovsky. - M.: Gandalf, 1999. - S. 102.
• 22. See: Busygina I.M. Political regional studies / I.M. Busygin. - M.: ROSSPEN, 2006. - S. 162-165.
• 23. See: Turovsky R.F. Regional Identity in Modern Russia // Russian Society: Formation of Democratic Values? / R.F. Turovsky. - M.: Gandalf, 1999. - S. 130.

1

The article presents a comparative analysis of the traditions of the national scientific school in the study of the content of the concept of "identity", "regional (including cultural) identity", the main methodological approaches, the experience of researchers of Russian regions in the post-Soviet period are characterized.

regional (territorial

cultural and other types) identity

originality

actors (regionalizers)

collective meaning

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5. Vasyugan swamp // Wonders of Russia. – URL: [Electronic resource]: http://www.ruschudo.ru/miracles/219/, accessed 30.10.2011.

6. Galazova S.S. Regional Identity of the Economic Space // Economics and Management. - 2014. - No. 6(115). - S. 64 - 69.

7. Golovneva E.V. Social constructivism and the meaning of the material in the explication of the concept of "region" / E.V. Golovneva [Text] // Labyrinth: Journal of Social and Humanitarian Research. - 2015. - No. 1. P 121 - 126.

8. Dokuchaev D.S. Regional identity of a Russian person in modern conditions: Abstract. … dis. cand. philosophy Sciences / D.S. Dokuchaev [Text]. - Ivanovo: IGU, 2011. - 24 p.

9. Krylov M.P. Regional identity in European Russia: Abstract of the thesis. … dis. doctor geographer. Sciences / M.P. Krylov. - M., 2007. - 53 p.

10. Nazukina M.V. Regional identity in modern Russia: typological analysis: Abstract of the thesis. … dis. cand. political sciences /M.V. Nazukina [Text]. - Perm, 2009. - 27 p.

11. Turovsky R.F. Correlation of cultural landscapes and regional identity in modern Russia / R.F. Turovsky [Text] // Identity and geography in post-Soviet Russia: Collection of articles. - St. Petersburg, 2003. - S. 139 - 155, 173.

12. Electronic resource. – Access mode: URL .

13. The use of new media in the geo-branding of Latvia [Electronic resource]. – Access mode: URL .

In pre-revolutionary Russia, there were two scientific traditions that in various ways interpreted with the content of the concept of "regional identity". So, in the tradition of M.P. Pogodin, S.M. Solovieva, A.D. Gradovsky suggested that rootlessness is a specific Russian trait, the source of which was the uniformity and uniformity of the natural conditions of the Russian Plain and the absence of stone in the construction of massive Orthodox churches and Russian houses (in reality, this is not entirely true - Novgorod, Pskov, and other cities). HELL. Gradovsky complements them with socio-political factors associated with the Mongol yoke, the constant migration of service people, the fight against separatism and the centralization of the Russian state.

The tradition of N.I. was completely opposite. Kostomarova- L.P. Shchapov, within the framework of which territorial contrasts in culture on the territory of Russia are very significant, and the spirit of freedom, vecha and confederation is inherent in the Russian national character. Therefore, the population of the ancient lands annexed by force to Moscow did not forget the ancient freemen for a very long time, which manifested itself in the Time of Troubles, when the situation was saved by the Great Russian regions and cities that retained their “originality”: Nizhny Novgorod, Yaroslavl, Vologda. However, there is an intermediate third point of view, smoothing over the extremes of the above two traditions. This view allows for the existence of rootedness with moderate regional cultural contrasts and without any kind of separatism (as applied to Siberia and Ukraine).

In Soviet times, very often identity was identified with the concepts of "originality", "specificity", "self-consciousness", both at the national (ethnic) and regional levels. Identity, including regional identity, has become a kind of "common denominator" that allows, in a certain sense, to measure globalization and tradition, modernization and tradition.

The concept of "identity" is currently considered the most general and universal concept that describes a set of qualitative and quantitative characteristics associated with the specificity of any given cultural or geographical individual (individual, group, territorial community, territory). Thus, the researcher Z.A. Zhade considers regional identity as a social function of socio-economic development and an element of political management, largely dependent on the impact of culture, inter-regional disparities and the level of economic and social development, the degree of peripherality of the region.

Currently, a lot of work has been written on the study of identity issues. So, in the works of N.V. Petrov, Yu. Perfiliev and others, regional identity is considered as a regional political symbolism, in the works of Yu.G Chernyshov, K.V. Kiselev as the image or positioning of the region, respectively. Quite a lot of works are devoted to the construction of regional identity and the analysis of the discursive practices of construction agents (media, political, intellectual elites, etc.). Such works are especially popular in the West, often performed on the example of one of the Russian regions. Among the works, it should be noted the works of such authors as V.G. Bogomyakova (Tyumen region), L.V. Sagitova (Tatarstan), L.M. Drobizheva ( national republics), A.D. Trakhtenberg (Ugra), A.M. Karpenko (Kaliningrad region), M.V. Nazukina (Perm Territory).

In the socio-economic, management literature, the most common ideas are about regional identity (RI) as a process, as a regional self-identification of the population. The regional identity of local communities and the groups of individuals that make up these communities reflects in the minds of people the local geographical specifics. In general, as Professor Fadeeva notes, the appeal to the concept of "identity" as a term in the social sciences appeared in the 1960s and 1970s. to describe minority groups and their contributing identities. Protest groups tried to justify their rights to be and to be able to organize themselves. Identity politics was intended to publicly legitimize a group with a certain status and their values ​​(racial, ethnic, gender, etc.). Their slogan was and is - "identity and diversity". Identity politics in this interpretation today shares the fate of multiculturalism and political correctness.

Modern points of view on the personality of a politician include a set of values, methods and tools for the purposeful formation / construction of identity (national, political, civil and regional). Identity politics depends on the level of power and types of communities. The authorities use symbolic politics, language, traditions, public space memory to build identity. This now can be a resource for innovation, modernization, development, or the status quo. Regional identity captures communities belonging to geographic spaces and draws the boundaries of this space.

Regional identity is now the subject of research in philosophy, history, geography, cultural studies, regional political research and other humanities. Each discipline has its own conceptual apparatus and methodology, a set of general terms. The most important of these is the intensification of the regional identity policy. Regional identity includes several directions, such as political, economic, and cultural. That is why a number of scientists from the position of the structural-functional approach distinguish 3 elements (or spaces) in regional identity: cognitive, emotional and instrumental (Table 1). The main difference between identity politics in the regions of Europe and Russia lies in the role of regional authorities, the process and model of their interaction with society. In Western Europe, identity politics tends to be a focused policy of consolidating groups and participants in the political process. In Russia, the role of power is clearly dominant, but not exclusively monopoly.

Table 1

Continuation of the table. one

Barygin I.N.	1. Basing many forms of regionalism on the community phenomenon (“communitarianism”, the verb communify). Closely adjoins the conceptual group and the category "identity" describes the state of the "community spirit". 2. Under the influence of these three different types of discourse, various regional practices are formed based on "oral history" (remembrances), "symbolic capital" (or "symbolic outlines" - "symbolic shape") and "spatial consciousness" ("spatial consciousness" ), which reflect the content of the concept from different angles. 3. Locality and regionality as phenomena are the result of conscious action - material, social and intellectual. 4. The actors involved in this action can be called "regionalizers" (regionalizers). 5. "Social regional dialects" are generated by the social and territorial differentiation of society, the intensity of the manifestation of certain forms of social activity	International regional studies: Textbook for universities. - St. Petersburg: Piter, 2009. - 384 p.
Kolba A.I.	The development and transmission of the Kuban identity at the present stage are associated with the cultural policy pursued in the region, the main and dominant actor of which is the regional administration.	Cultural policy in the regions and the struggle for identity: Bulletin of the Perm University. - Perm, Perm state. nat. research University, 2011. - S. 52.
Krylov M.P.	The set of spatially expressed socio-cultural relations associated with the concept of "small motherland"	Krylov M.P. On the theory of regional identity (based on European Russia) // Identity as a subject of political analysis: Sat. articles based on the results of the All-Russian Scientific and Theoretical Conference (IMEMO RAS, October 21-22, 2010). - M.: IMEMO RAN. - S. 213.
Busygina I.M.	Regional identity includes three elements: cognitive, affirmative and instrumental83. First, the inhabitants of the region must have some knowledge about their region, its geographic boundaries, as well as neighboring regions. Secondly, any knowledge about your region. Thirdly, it includes certain emotions. The instrumental element of identity is related to the previous two and is used to mobilize the population. Cultural policy affects all elements of regional identity, and constructs the identity of the region's community	Source: [Busygina I.M. political regionalism. - M., ROSSPEN. 2006. - S. 162]
Dokuchaev D.S.	The regional identity of a person is clearly manifested at two levels: personal (correlation of the "self" of a person with the "genius loci" of the region: intellectual, spiritual, emotional and other phenomena and their material environment) and social (a person's awareness of his belonging to a regional community, ideas about the identity and integrity of which are formed within the framework of social interaction)	Source: [Dokuchaev D.S. Regional identity of a Russian person in modern conditions: Abstract of the thesis. …dis. cand. philosophy Sciences. - Ivanovo: ISU, 2011.S. 9]

The end of the table. one

Regional (territorial) identity	Experienced and/or perceived meanings of the system of territorial "communities" (subjective socio-geographical reality) that form a "practical feeling" and/or consciousness of an individual's territorial affiliation. Regional identity is the thoughts and feelings of the subject regarding the region, which form the territorial affiliation of the individual. Regional identity is part of a person's social identity. Components: cognitive ((knowledge, ideas about the characteristics of the group, the significance of membership in it) and affective (assessment of the qualities of one's own group, the significance of membership in it))
Krylov M.P.	A systemic set of sociocultural relations associated with the concept of "small motherland". In this regard, regional identity can be understood as an internal (from the point of view of the local residents themselves) and usually “non-promoted” image of the territory, which includes an internal set of images, symbols, myths, in contrast to the external image (from the point of view of a migrant, politically -technologist, organizer of tourism, traveler, etc.).
Nazukina M.V.	Development and maintenance of collective meanings that backbone and regulate group interaction, support the symbolic unity of the regional community, form its boundaries, separate it from other communities, acquiring political essence when they become significant in the life of the regional community, are used as a symbolic means of legitimizing order within the region	Source: [Nazukina M.V. Regional identity in modern Russia: typological analysis: Abstract of the thesis. … dis. cand. political sciences Perm, 2009. P.5]

The phenomenon of "regional identity" is the object of study of various scientific disciplines in the context of their methodological aspects of philosophical, geographical, political, social, communicative, economic, etc. It should be noted that within the framework of each of the scientific disciplines, a certain methodological experience and scientific and instrumental apparatus for the study of "regional identity" has been accumulated. This testifies to the interdisciplinary nature of this phenomenon, which requires its clarification from the position of application to the modernization vector of sustainable development of regions, which imposes its own framework of "compression" or "expansion" of the spatial structures of the functioning of regional economic systems. According to A. Arkhangelsky, identity should be considered as a non-renewable resource that cannot be reproduced, it cannot be a product of image-making. Regional identity (self-identification, self-awareness, memory of oneself in history, cultural inertia) "does not work by itself" . Currently Russian experience the study of regional identity (cultural, social, etc.) is insufficient and requires its allocation to one of the priority humanitarian areas of research at the state and regional levels, which is especially important for the sustainable development of regions (figure).

Among Russian researchers, in our opinion, the most systematic is the point of view of Doctor of Economic Sciences S.S. Galazova, who singled out the structural elements of the regional identity of the economic space, presenting two groups: material (natural, geographical, economic, transport, logistics, infrastructure, cultural, etc.) and intangible (political, social, mental, cultural, gender, economic , communicative, etc.) and formulated the content of the main methodological approaches (aspects) to the content of the concept (Table 2).

Competitive identity hexagon (territory branding according to Anholt)

table 2

Main methodological approaches to the concept of "regional identity"*

	Methodological approach (aspect)
	Territorial-geographical	A set of special territorial, natural, historical, mental, ethnic and other features that make it possible to distinguish it in many other territories. Therefore, the regional identity of the development of the economic space within the framework of the territorial-geographical approach acts as an essential factor in the socio-economic development of the regions and has a heterogeneous character.
	Administrative-territorial	A set of administrative features, status, boundaries of a territory or other subject of a federation
	Economic	The set of properties of a localized territory, which is characterized by production, personnel, technological, infrastructural, specialization of the territory as a subsystem of the national economy
	Sociological	Socio-territorial commonality of the collective identity of individuals
	Synthetic	A synthetic phenomenon that can be distinguished by a group of heterogeneous criteria and features (systemic, spatial, competitive, marketing, mental phenomenon, etc.)

*Compiled according to .

The variety of interpretations and conceptual boundaries of the regional identity of the economic space of the region testifies not only to the complexity and diversity of this phenomenon, but also to the adequacy of using different scientific apparatus within each of the approaches. The concept of "regional identity" is actively used in Western literature. The term "identity" (from the English identity, identity, adequacy) was introduced into humanitarian studies by Z. Freud, who considered the "identity crisis" of the individual. In the future, studies of the "social identity" of the individual contributed to the study of its collective forms of implementation at various levels, in the varieties of social interactions of individuals. As noted by L.V. Smirnyagin, from the standpoint of a sociological approach, the United States uses four methods of studying regional (territorial) identity through: a) common sense in determining the boundaries of a territory, region; b) analysis of advertising sources to promote the territory to tourists; c) the movement of people, goods, information; d) analysis of guidebooks, scientific papers, etc. As a result, the content of the concept of “regional identity” is formed in American research practice.

According to M.P. Krylov, after 1991 in Russian science (regional studies, sociology, economics and other sciences) there was a surge in the study and development of regional identity, which was more often associated with frequently used indicators (vodka brands, headlines in local newspapers, etc.). ). These indicators began to reflect a new context, background, environment, but not the phenomenon itself, which is associated with a person's worldview, to which these indicators do not apply. After 1991, everything changed - the external social environment, new opportunities for self-expression appeared (primarily in material aspects, although this was after 1953, 1955, 1965), the economic and political systems, remained - people.

The construction of regional identity is most often based on a special regional history, myths and traditions, such components of culture as literature, music, art, famous artists who lived and live in the territory of this region. Each region creates its own identity, trying to fashion such a “face” through various symbols that at first glance would distinguish it from others. At the same time, most regions rely on traditional brands, time-tested and determined by the historical, economic, geographical and other features of the territory (Table 3). So, for example, the basis for the formation of identity Tyumen region over the past fifty years and was associated with oil and gas production, the value of which is now more often declining.

Table 3

Modern regional brands of Russia (fragment)

		Stages of formation of regional identity	Examples of regional brands
	Tyumen region	a) 1960 - 1970s; b) 1970-1990s; c) 1990 - 2000s; d) since the 2000s Until now	a) "Tyumen is the capital of the oil region"; b) "Tyumen is the first Russian city of Siberia"; c) "Tyumen is the capital of villages"; d) "Tyumen is a pilot region"	Government of the Tyumen region headed by the governor;
	Tomsk region	a) 1960 - 1990s; b) 1990 - 2008s; c) 2009 - 2011 and up to the present, two types of brands (brands-personalities aimed at the development of tourism, representing the region, city, as the place where any famous writer, an athlete, an actor who is proud of the residents; brands based on the rich history of the area, the peoples living in these places)	Vasyugan swamp, Siberian taiga, monuments of wooden architecture of Tomsk, Ob-Yenisei Canal, Tomsk Bogoroditse-Aleksievsky Monastery, a monument to a football fan, a monument to slippers; Spirits and souls of the Tym Selkups.	Specialists in the field of geography, the Internet, advertising and project management, experts and analysts; The government of the Tomsk region headed by the governor
	Sverdlovsk region	a) 1960 - 1990s; b) 1990 - 2010s; c) from 2011 to the present, the type of brands (brands-persons aimed at the development of tourism, brands based on the history of territories, peoples living in these places and museum institutions; brands-events)	Regional identity as an activity of public, private and public institutions aimed at determining the goals and priorities of cultural development, the formation of the institutional, legal and economic base of culture, the creation of conditions for the participation of the population in cultural life	Government of the Sverdlovsk region headed by the Governor of the ANO "Creative Industries Agency" E. Zelentsova; mayor of the city, relevant ministries, departments, administrations; art business, creative industry specialists, expert analysts, business community, non-profit organizations
	Krasnodar region	a) Soviet; b) post-Soviet period	A variety of symbols and representations: "Kuban", "Kuban", associated with the Krasnodar Territory, "familiar to the ear" and affect people's self-awareness	Governor's administration, public organizations, increasing role of the Cossacks and youth

The evolution of regional cultural and historical brands is typical for many regions, including the Tyumen region (in Soviet times, from the use of oil and gas fields to emphasizing the provincial essence of a “dirty” city until the end of the 20th century). At the beginning of the XXI century. in connection with the growth of the well-being of the population, the economy of the Tyumen region, the loyalty of the local population to the regional authorities, as well as social and political stability and participation in several large federal pilot projects (the village for young families "Molodezhny" was built, the projects "Kindergartens for children ”, “Energy Efficient Quarter”), the regional image was undergoing changes.

The process of creating a regional identity is impossible without defining the symbols of the region. The Tomsk region took part in the project "7 Wonders of Russia", and after the III Museum Forum "Brands of the Tomsk Land" held in 2011, it began to position museums as one of key elements formation and promotion of an attractive image of the region. In the Sverdlovsk region, in the formation of regional identity, including cultural, the emphasis began to shift from the activities of official subjects (governor, mayor, relevant ministries, departments, departments) to numerous actors who form various cultural practices in space, as well as art business, representatives creative industries.

According to a number of researchers, in Krasnodar, Kirov, Vologda in the post-Soviet period, regional cultural identity was considered through the prism of economic and social well-being, and now through the education system, sports achievements (Sochi - 2014), as well as taking into account age and other differentiation scales. The researcher R.F.Turovsky, describing the regional identity of modern Russia, spoke about its first level, i.e. about macroregions, as generally recognized and widely known, reflected back in the Soviet economic regions, which had the corresponding cultural and historical meaning. He singled out the Center, the North, the South, the Volga region, the Urals, Siberia and the Far East (and, possibly, the Black Earth region) as macroregions of Russia.

In an effort to systematize the issues of the essence of the concept of "regional identity", including cultural, numerous authors have developed its research schemes (models). Most often, this model included the following main elements (aspects):

1. Actors: Who initiates public comment: officials(governor, mayor, ministers), politicians (pro-government, opposition party leaders), social activists (supporters of the government or opposition), journalists, professionals (writers, artists, experts, etc.). Who is involved in the struggle for identity? Own or someone else's subjects.

2. Meanings: What meanings and feelings in the understanding of regional identity are hidden behind the actors' opinions? How are these meanings related and how do they differ? How do these meanings correlate with the “old” image of the region? (from traditional to innovative; from government to opposition)?

3. Motives and motivation: From value to instrumental, taking into account the existing hierarchy of motives.

4. Arena or communication system: where the views of actors and actors are expressed (in the media, in public, public discussions; through old or new channels (institutions) of communication, etc. Is it effective or not?

5. Models of interactions: Do actors and actors interact with each other, coordinate their actions, influence each other's views, do they reach a compromise or are they in confrontation?

6. Tools of self-identification (“transformation”): Are historical narratives, public memory, symbols, art (including street art, contemporary art), monuments, urban landscape, etc. used. Modern images of the regions are reproduced through the media, replacing traditional ways of communication and formations (according to E.V. Golovneva, a rural gathering, gatherings, etc.); functional-role methods of communication (in the urban environment through social roles that the participants play),

Consideration of the region in terms of social constructivism raises the following question: how real, authentic can regions be in the modern global world? What exactly stands behind geographic, spatial images? How can regions assert themselves, given that in modern culture they can appear and disappear at the behest of image makers, writers, rulers and scientists and other actors?

In conclusion, we should agree with the conclusions of Doctor of Economic Sciences S.S. Galazova that in the content of the concept of "region" it is necessary to take into account the multiplicity and variability of conceptual criteria and images of regional identity (from the typology of economic space to fixing the diversity of material and non-material aspects of spatial distribution and development of regional resources). It is this diversity that implies the use of interdisciplinary scientific tools. At present, the most important factors in the formation of the content of this concept must be taken into account various aspects regional identity, affecting the competitiveness of regional entities. This requires further methodological, historical, cultural, economic developments in this area of ​​research.

Bibliographic link

Levochkina N.A. REGIONAL IDENTITY: CONCEPT AND ESSENCE // International Journal of Applied and Fundamental Research. - 2016. - No. 1-3. – P. 446-453;
URL: https://applied-research.ru/ru/article/view?id=8533 (date of access: 03/30/2019). We bring to your attention the journals published by the publishing house "Academy of Natural History"