Between the Local, National and Global: The Problem of "Regional Identities"

The main objective of the paper is to examine the concepts of region and regional identity in order to point out their political, social and theoretical/philosophical opportunity, and also their highly problematic character, especially in the current Eastern European context. The author tries to determine the contents of the concept of region from phenomenological perspective and shows that it is hardly possibly because, in practice, "region" refers more to arbitrary political and administrative criteria than to what can be experienced as a common "surrounding world". The examples of regions analyzed in the paper are those of the infra-state Polish region Podlasie and of the supra-state Euregion Neman. In conclusion, the author claims that the opposition cultural/political, or experienced/constructed, should be mediated by European legal and moral rules. It is also claimed that only awareness of difficulties connected with the project of regions can allow their construction in a realistic, not arbitrary and not utopian way.