Regionen in Resonanz: Regionalentwicklung als performative Praxis

This paper deals with the performative dimension of region-building processes and its implications for regional development and planning. It focuses on the interaction between administrative-normative programme regions or planning regions and identity regions shaped by lived experience. The concept of resonance serves as an analytical framework to conceptualise this interaction between the human lifeworld and the technical-administrative planning world. Building on this idea, the paper examines how regions are performatively produced as ,realities of implementation‘ through everyday doings, considering different practices of regionalisation. It argues that the question of mutual resonance between programme regions and identity regions is highly relevant for regional development and planning. Examples from Styria (Austria) illustrate how regional identification processes relate to regional development policies. Finally, approaches are derived that can be used in practice to bring regions into resonance. The paper thus makes a conceptual contribution to the further development of approaches of regional studies and reflects on its practical applications.