Study on regional identity
10.03.2025
The Elbe/Labe Euroregion is currently hosting a geography student from Ústí nad Labem who is conducting a research project in cooperation with the Euroregion. This project includes a survey among the inhabitants and institutions of the border region on regional identities. We would be very pleased if as many people as possible would take part in this survey and disseminate it further.
What is it about?
The research project examines the perception of regions in the border area of the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland. A key question is: What is a region or your region?
For some, their region is a larger urban area or a district, for others it is a vast natural area or a historically defined area. Each of these regions has its own characteristics that distinguish it from other regions. There are various natural, historical, social or economic aspects that make up their identity and usually evoke positive emotions and a sense of belonging, giving us a feeling of home.
The project at J. E. Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem aims to uncover these regional characteristics and understand how the inhabitants feel connected to their region. This will be used to create a regional map that can serve as a basis for development planning in municipalities and districts.
How can you get involved?
Everyone is invited to take part in this project and contribute their views and feelings to the research. An interactive online questionnaire has been created for this purpose.
On the one hand, we would be very happy if you would complete this questionnaire. It will take about 15 minutes. Please note: it is easier to complete on a computer than on a cell phone.
Secondly, it would be great if you could also forward this invitation to participate in the project to other people and institutions in the German-Czech border region. The more people take part, the better the research results and thus their practical benefits will be.
More about the project
This is a funded project at the Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem (UJEP-SGS-2022-53-001-3: Participatory mapping as a tool for visualizing regional dynamics), which is part of the dissertation entitled "Fluid regionalisation in a multi-layered Europe".
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the project leader Martin Bartůněk (martin.bartunek@ujep.cz) for further information.
If you are curious about how such a map of different types of regions could look like (see excerpt above), you can find an example here.