Regional Identity and Diversity in Europe

How can a single European government incorporate the needs of many distinct regional European cultures? This book draws together leading researchers from throughout Europe to examine a selection of regional identities in three European nation states. The three regions studied are Wales in the UK, Flanders in Belgium, and Silesia in Poland. The authors find that each of the three regions display a lively sense of regional identity as well as national identity and they go on to explore the implications of these robust regional identities for the governance of European nation states and for the governance of the European Union. The book also considers the implications of continuing regional identities for the growth of a European "demos," a growth which many analysts believe is an indispensable precondition for further political integration within the European Union.