Regional Identity: Initial Ideas

Introduction: 

I have been given the brief for our first, post-induction, project for our second year of BTEC Creative Media Practice. It is entitled "Regional Identity'. Our client for the production is 'Sunderland Culture', from this I can denote that the core theme for my documentary should be based around the regional identity of Sunderland and its surrounding region, the North East. 

As to better understand what regional identity is,  I began to seek out online resources to further my understanding of the term regional identity. In researching this topic, I tried to read from a variety of different sources as to make sure I am given a variety of perspectives.

I sourced a definition from 'ScienceDirect' - a website that provides "heuristic and machine-learning approaches to extract relevant information from our extensive collection of content." 'ScienceDirect' defines regional identity as: "Regional identity is a kind of spatial identity on a certain scale called the meso-level. Regional identity is located between the national and the local level."

Source: Regional Identity - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics - 

Regional identity is a very broad term that can be interpreted many ways, as stated by the definition - "regional identity is located between the national and local level." This, in layman's terms, essentially creates a distinction between terms of national identity and regional identity. In order to further understand the differences between these two terms - I sourced a definition of national identity as so that I can compare the features of the two terms. Understanding the distinction between the two definitions will help me more clearly understand what regional identity is going forward in this stage of production. 

Scale is helpful to distinguish regional identity from place identity. Although in some cases place identity is used as the overall term for the different levels of scale, place identity is normally associated with the directly perceived space. An aspect which distinguishes regional identity from place identity is a higher degree of abstraction from the concrete space. To a lesser extent regional identity is bounded to the concrete perceived space, the personal perception and experience, and the co-presence of individuals. ‘Local identity’ is bounded to the network of friends and relatives, to the personal socialization of the individual and therefore people are deeply attached to particular places. Regional identity, however, is more abstract: it does not need an actual or the remembrance of a former co-presence of people at the same place. The person with close ties to the region normally knows the region, the physical space, and even more its inhabitants, only in part by personal experience. Particularly against this background symbols which are known and shared by a collective are quite important to establish a sense of community.

National identity is based on the features of a specific country - its culture , traditions, language and politics. Regional identity is also based on geographical area but can be quite broad (someone could be from the North or the South of England) or more specific 

Regional Identity in the North East of England:

It shows the term ‘North East’ only appeared in the late 19th Century to refer to the industrial zones on the Tyne, Wear and Tees, but it was really only with the advent of regional broadcasting, particularly Tyne Tees TV, that the current sense and mass usage of the ‘North East’ term appeared.

Source

On the base of this, Northerness emerges as a complex and layered identity, which can assume different connotations according to the vantage point from which it is viewed, perceived and experienced. Nor is this all, as the North and its identities should also be understood as part of a wider sense of English nationhood. 

Being ‘Northern’, in all its shades and forms, can be seen as a specific, and perhaps distinctive, way of being English. But one does not necessarily exclude the other. Indeed, as demonstrated in a recent study (Giovannini, 2016), local and regional senses of belonging in the North do play a strong role in defining people’s identities, but these are also interlinked with and couched in an overarching sense of Englishness – which may be problematic, and at times perceived as biased towards the South, but is still relevant and meaningful. 

Although some critics have gone as far as defining the North as ‘England’s foreign country within’ (Taylor, 1993), more recent analyses (e.g. Kenny, 2014) show that the distinctiveness of the North and its regions and localities cannot (and should not) be seen as separated from the national story of England. However, the challenge here remains that of finding a way of making these multilayered territorial and identity dimensions coalesce in a positive way, going beyond the view that sees the North as subordinated to, and almost as a periphery of, the South.

 The North East was widely identified as having the most distinctive regional identity of any English region (see Parks and Elcock, 2000). I find this to be in line with many views here in the North East. With the majority of media stemming from more prosperous regions, many voices from the North East have not been able to exhibit the same platform.