ABSTRACT
This chapter gives an overview of the main concepts, categorisations and models. It discusses traditional and now defunct conceptualisation of identities as fixed facts, and the current dominant conceptualisation of spatial identities as social constructions. The chapter then focuses on the relation between different types of communities and spatial identities. It discusses the role of spatial identities in the institutionalisation of spaces like municipalities and nations. The chapter explains the layering of the identities of different spatial entities across scales when municipalities cooperate. It focuses on the importance of spatial identities for the legitimation of amalgamated municipalities. Resistance identities can emerge when the local population considers amalgamation as illegitimate. The chapter ends with a discussion on the changing relation between primary and secondary identities during municipal mergers. The different local identities in the amalgamated municipality of Katwijk are commonly linked to the different means of existence in the different villages.
