Reorganisation of Ethnic Space
in the Context of the Challenges of Globalisation
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Jagiellonian University
Publication date: 2010-03-22
Polish Sociological Review 2010;169(1):87-98
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ABSTRACT
In this essay I will analyse selected aspects of the process of arranging traditional space in the
face of the challenges of modernity. Progressive globalisation, cultural changes, social transformations—all
these processes have influenced the ways local communities manage their territory. I will mainly deal with
the phenomenon of reterritorialisation, focus on how identification with territory is reinforced in local
communities. I will show how cultural legacy, characteristic of a given region, shapes particular versions of
locality and globalisation.The role of ethnicity in these processes is of special interest. Is ethnic identification
still taken into account in social strategies embedded in the processes of globalisation? In the first part
I argue that modernity introduces irreversible changes to the character of existing and ethnically defined
space. The second part includes arguments supporting the thesis about the necessity of adjusting to modern
strategies of region management, which must entail partially giving up territorial identity protection. In
spite of this, in the process of ethnic construction of a region, space seems to constitute a social framework
which determines points of reference for collective action and conceptualisation of new reality