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Regionalism, Localism and Ideas of Home in Modern European History

Module description

Throughout modern European history, localism, regionalism and popular desires for a place of home have proven recurring themes – particularly during periods of turbulent modernisation, mass destruction, and experience of uprootedness. But what political ideas and ideologies have underpinned localist and regionalist movements? Are they inherently regressive, nationalist and exclusionary phenomena or have they also included more cosmopolitan, inclusive and democratic varieties? How have different political movements and historical actors sought to shape ideas of home, locality, and region throughout modern European history? This module will examine these questions by looking at different local and regional case studies throughout Western Europe during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The module will introduce you to the history of regionalism, localism and community formation in subnational places. It will do so within a nationally-comparative framework and allow you to explore the contingent and flexible relationships between local and regional identities and ideas of politics and nation (ranging from separatism to nationalist affirmation and federalist varieties in between). In exploring the diverse and often divergent political and ideological forms of regionalism that have existed throughout modern European history, you will look at localist and regionalist movements that advanced federalist democracy, environmental preservation, and European unification, as well as other strains of localism and regionalism that advanced exclusion of outside groups, anti-democratic ideologies, and authoritarianism. On the broadest level, the module will provide you with a greater awareness of the importance of place, space and community to historical analysis and political movements.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Illustrate an understanding of modern regionalism, localism and processes of community formation in western European history.
• 2. Demonstrate a knowledge of the historical intersections between regionalism, localism, and processes of nation-building.
• 3. Understand the historical connections between cultural ideas of home and their relation to different ideologies, political movements and modes of engagement with the outside world.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Engage in transnational comparisons and demonstrate the ability to bring different national historiographies into discourse with one another.
• 5. Analyse and interpret a collection of primary sources to advance sophisticated and convincing arguments in the topic area.
• 6. Formulate a relevant research question and develop an independent research strategy to develop an answer to the proposed question.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Develop a research plan and establish a personal timetable for completing a high-quality piece of written work based on original research.
• 8. Find, digest and synthesise diverse information to advance a coherent and cogent argument with minimum guidance.
• 9. Combine independent study with the ability to work in a collaborative framework.

Syllabus plan

Following a brief survey of pre-modern ideas of locality and region, the module will examine the birth of modern regionalism and modern ideas of home in the nineteenth century. We will examine topics including the relationship between localism, regionalism and nation-building as well as the use of historical memory to construct and revise the terms of local and regional belonging. Moving into the twentieth century, we will look comparatively at ideas of region and home town in democracy and dictatorship from the interwar years to the end of World War II. The module will conclude by examining the role of localities and regions in post-war reconstructions and the resurgence of regionalism in the 1970s and 1980s.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Joost Augusteijn and Eric Storm, eds., Region and State in Nineteenth-Century Europe: Nation Building, Regional Identities and Separatism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).
• Xosé Núnez Seixas and Eric Storm, Regionalism and Modern Europe: Identity Construction and Movements from 1890 to the Present Day (Bloomsbury, 2019).
• Michael Allen Fox, Home: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2016).
• David Blackbourn and James Retallack, eds., Localism, Landscape and Ambiguities of Place (University of Toronto Press, 2007).
• Abigail Green, Fatherlands: State-Building and Nationhood in Nineteenth-Century Germany (Cambridge University Press, 2001).
• Celia Applegate, “A Europe of Regions: Reflections on the Historiography of Sub-National Places in Modern Times,” American Historical Review 104, Nr.4 (October 1999): 1157-1182.
• Stefan Couperus and Harm Karl, Reconstructing Communities in Europe, 1918-1968: Senses of Belonging, Below, Beneath and Within the Nation-State (Routledge, 2017).   

Key words search

Regionalism, localism, home, modern European history, community, federalism, nationalism, nineteenth century, twentieth century