Regionalization of the World: Comparing Regional Integrations [Hardcover]

On the world map, macro-regions or global regions have gradually emerged, with varying degrees of success and following different trajectories. The authors of this book attempt to determine whether, within the context of globalization, these macro-regions have become an additional level in the spatial deployment of numerous actors, and whether they have come to stand between the national and global levels.

This question has arisen because the increasing scales of trade, environmental problems, migration routes, energy distribution, the construction of major infrastructures etc. transcend national boundaries and are leading states to implement macro-regional cooperation.

The authors ask whether these large regional groupings are becoming genuine territories and are the fruit of in-depth regional integration  economic, institutional, legal, normative, political, cultural and in terms of identity. If so, these global regions would therefore become referents that make sense and take root in social representations.

Introduction xiii
Pierre BECKOUCHE and Yann RICHARD

Chapter 1 From Regional Geography to the Geography of Regionalization 1
Pierre BECKOUCHE and Yann RICHARD

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 19th and 20th centuries: the hesitant paths of regionalization between intra-state regions and continents 2

1.2.1 The legacy of the 18th century 2

1.2.2 Vidal and the vidalians: lifestyles, cities and circulation 2

1.3 20th century: an early but timid emergence of the world 4

1.3.1 The world as a chessboard 4

1.3.2 The inter-war period: decline of Europe, the European region, Triad 5

1.3.3 After World War II: global regions at last? 6

1.3.4 The 1980s: thlS�