ABSTRACT
The revival of regionalist movements in an increasingly integrated European Union presents some important yet little-explored issues with implications extending far beyond the often noted fact that small regions are more viable in a larger economic space. When people reassess their economic interest in relation to a specific territory, they are not simply reacting to changing economic realities. They engage in a cognitive and affective process of construction of spatial boundaries and of the redefinition of social and civic identity. Here we will consider the ascendancy of the northern Italian movement Lega Lombarda or Lega Nord1 by examining the transformations of the social identity of activists in connection to the leadership’s adaptation to changing political opportunity structures. Over the decade during which it has held national relevance in Italian politics, the Lega has changed its criteria of classification of members, allies and enemies. We will review these changes, the ambiguities that accompanied them, and connect both to changes in the social and cultural background of activists and to changes of the global institutional context.
