RETHINKING REGIONS IN SLOVAKIA—AN IDYLL OF TRADITIONAL CULTURE VERSUS INSTITUTIONAL FLUIDITY

THE 5TH CONGRESS OF SLAVIC GEOGRAPHERS AND ETHNOGRAPHERS (2024) (стр. 357-369)
 

АУТОР / AUTHOR(S): Martin Lukáč Kinčeš

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DOI: 10.46793/CSGE5.357MLK

САЖЕТАК / ABSTRACT:

Slovakia, as an important part of the former Habsburg Monarchy, was extremely administratively fragmented already in the Middle Ages due to developed mining, forestry, and related industry, but also due to geomorphological conditions forming significant natural barriers. Each political regime operating in this territory imposed its own idea of its territorial-administrative affiliation on the territory and its population, pursuing specific geographical interests (defense of the territory against further secession, e.g., in favor of Poland) and political goals (dimensioning of districts with the aim of minimizing the dominance of the Hungarian national minority). The frequency of these reforms was so high during the 20th century that many of the territorial-administrative reforms didn’t even have time to properly establish and integrate into people’s consciousness. Since 1996, Slovakia has not been able to decide how to reform public administration and its territorial-administrative structure. In fact, people, experts, and politicians rarely agree on its absolute need. Nevertheless, changes in spatial organization of regional units in Slovakia mostly come “from below” (local level) and partly “from above” (national level) influenced by dynamic socio-cultural processes, economic factors, and regional development strategies (caused by joining European Union [EU], particularly related to the implementation of European structural and investment funds). Therefore, new micro-regional units are created, so called “local action groups”, appearing as regional tourism organizations or functional associations of municipalities. In order to conduct new regionalization of Slovakia, in its basic and final concept, a rational approach on the stratification of the territory through the division into geographical regions, historical regions, and cultural regions is necessary, observed as separate sets of regionalization. In view of the above, the submitted contribution will attempt to answer a set of selected questions: Is traditional folk culture a basic parameter of identity in a historically predominantly rural country? Don’t regional and national institutions take over the role of bearers of territorial identity? Which institutional aspects are essential for the creation of regions? What is the position of the stakeholders in the complex system of territorial identities and rethinking regions? Doesn’t every period transformation bring about a certain transposition of defining self-determination and identity, and don’t stable regions become fluid regions?

КЉУЧНЕ РЕЧИ / KEYWORDS:

regions; Slovakia; cultural background; identity; territory

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