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It gives me great pleasure to welcome all participants to the BAIL 2006 conference in Goettingen, Germany. This conference is the latest in a long line of international conferences on Boundary and Interior Layers, that have been held in many parts of the world. The first three conferences were held in Dublin, Ireland in 1980, 1982 and 1984. These were followed by conferences in Novosibirsk, USSR (1986), Shanghai, China (1988)

Zur Architektur von Kopplungen von ''Local Area Networks'' und ''Wide Area Networks'' im Deutschen Forschungsnetz Studie

TIB: RO 4569 (3) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman

From thick to thin regional identities?

Regions and regional identity have become more important over the last decades. At the same time regions have become less discernable as distinct historically rooted spatial entities. Globalisation and the decline of collective identities through individualisation transform both this regional reality and how regions are conceptualised. This article analyses the shifts in types of regional identities used by regional administrations in an increasingly competitive environment. It uses the contrast between ‘thick’ traditional and historical rooted well-established regional identities, and ‘thin’ regional identities which are more transitory and focus more on economic competitiveness. These concepts are used to analyse the regional identity of regional administrations in Northwest Germany and the Netherlands. Hybrid regional identities combining a locally specific mix of thick and thin elements of regional identity, and which link up with regional identities at other relevant scales, appear to be the most effective regional identities for regional administrations facing the challenges of both globalisation and the decline in collective identities