An Art of the Region: Towards a Politics of Regionness

R. Guy Emerson

New Political Economy, 2014, vol. 19, issue 4, 559-577

Abstract: Recent analysis on New Regionalism has, for Bj�rn Hettne, raised important ontological questions over 'what we study when we study regionalism'. The paper contributes to this debate by focusing on the shared beliefs, norms and rituals that hold a region together. Working between the New Regionalism literature and thinking on international regimes, this paper - to paraphrase Friedrich Kratochwil and John Ruggie - outlines the 'inescapable inter-subjective quality' of a region. This focus on inter-subjectivity seeks to improve on existing approaches that consider shared social structures as already fixed, and/or as autonomous constructs operating over and above regional actors. In order to appreciate how inter-subjective structures and regional agents interact with each other, the paper explores the social construction of Latin America. Specifically, it examines the politics of regionness - understood here in relation to identity, space and agents - to demonstrate how various regional actors operate within, and reconstruct, shared meaning. In so doing, it interrogates the practices that govern and continually produce the region.

Date: 2014
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DOI: 10.1080/13563467.2013.829434

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