Homo regionalis: Regions as Places where Human Beings Live and Act

Magdalena ZDUN

Abstract

The article aims to discuss three fundamental models of homo regionalis, i.e., of a human being who lives his or her life in a particular region. The models draw on the concepts of a region advanced in geography and social science. The three identified concepts of a region: materialistic, interactionist, and systemic, are related, respectively, to three kinds of culture, as described by Antonina Kłoskowska, namely, material culture, societal culture, and symbolic culture. It is also to these categories that one must refer the models of homo regionalis, conceived, above all, as types of regional personality. The first model, that of human beings concerned about their welfare, relates to a physical territory and material security. The backdrop for the interpretation of the model in question is the Heideggerian idea of the world made up of things that are “ready-to-hand.” The second model, related to the interactionist perspective, describes human beings as taking care for regional bonds. The model is discussed in the context of functional structuralism, where a region is described as a field of relationships, while an individual constitutes a link in the social chain. In the third model, which completes the analysis, human beings are construed as caring for meaning. That model is related to the systemic perspective which defines the cohesion of a territory in terms of the structures of meaning. An inhabitant of a region in the latter sense is a citizen of a ‘little homeland.’

Translated by Patrycja Mikulska