Finding a Place in the World
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How are people's identities changing in relation to the ever-increasing interactions among regions associated
with globalization? Geographers have long been interested in how cultures and identities are expressed spatially.
This involves asking what is the region with which people identify and within which their culture finds expression?
Given the movement of people from one region to the next (explored in "An Uprooted World") and the fact that identities
and cultures are always undergoing transformation, regional identities and cultures are always changing. The units
in this theme suggest that because of these changes, national borders should not be taken for granted as "natural"
divisions of people in terms of cultural, ethnic, religious, or other forms of identity. Most states contain groups
who do not necessarily consider themselves part of the dominant nation. The units are meant to help us think about
different regional units that express identities in alternative ways. They also seek to develop the idea that, as
the processes of globalization proceed, new regions of identity become increasingly important vis-à-vis the traditional
nation-state. Thus, for instance, as Europe becomes increasingly unified under the European Union (EU), new regionalisms,
such as the Basque movement, continue to press their cases for independence or autonomy (Chapter 4). Similar units explore
the Native Americans in the United States (Chapter 2), Aceh in Indonesia (Chapter 10), and Aboriginals in Australia
(Chapter 11). We also explore the revival of regional cultural identities in the states of the former Soviet Union
(Chapter 5), the struggles of the "lost boys" of Sudan to find new homes in North America (Chapter 2), and the changing
nature of gender identities among Islamic societies of Southwest Asia (Chapter 6).
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