Ways of understanding regions: rhetorics of interpretation of Asia-Europe linkages

Abstract

In recent years in the matter of regions (and the process of regionalization) has received much political, policy and scholarly attention - the scholarly analyses of regions are now very sophisticated - however, in this paper I want to do something rather different - I want to consider the rhetorics of regions - the ways in which the idea figures in diverse discourses - I am concerned with ways of understanding. I will (i) look at the rhetorics of regions - the diverse ways in which the idea can be developed and the ways in which the ideas can be presented in the public sphere; and (ii) thereafter note three diverse approaches to analysing regions. I will (iii) conclude by sketching one possible agenda for research into Europe-Asia linkages