Author: Wouter Johanns
MSc Thesis AMS Institute - Capturing culture: A quantitative approach to map Dutch cultures in a landscape of regionalizing governance
MADE Student Project
Regionalization of governance is an ever-ongoing process in the Netherlands. This process is spurred by societal developments such as globalization, digitalization and a push for sustainability that demand to be tackled beyond the borders of local governance structures. Governance regionalization has mostly been spurred by functional or strategic reasons, but it is argued that the role of a cultural identity is equally important for successful regional governance. This is reflected in public unrest around regionalization of governance, as citizens fear a loss of identity. This demands a pragmatic, nationwide approach to evaluate the role of regional culture in regionalization of governance; one reason for the lack of attention for regional cultural identity in governance regionalization, is that there is no comprehensive way to capture it.
Therefore, this thesis first aims to research how cultural regions in the Netherlands can be quantified and mapped. Second, it researches how regionalized governance can relate to cultural and functional regions in the Netherlands.
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Image credits
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