Local Area Studies and Local Identity (the Case of Small Towns of Central Russia)

Abstract

The author argues that local area studies, which select and isolate the most prominent (from the viewpoint of their practitioners) elements in the local text and structure them into a system of sorts, do construct a certain representation or certain image of own region which is thus made more obvious and accessible to the public consciousness. The juxtaposition of the image of own region that is produced by local area studies practitioners with the symbols of that image reflected in mainstream local consciousness allows us, as the author points out, to conclude that both essentially if not fully overlap. This fact, according to the author, testifies to the paramount influence exerted – in manifold ways and differing forms – by the specialized local area studies activities on the shaping of mainstream local identities.