ABSTRACT

This chapter analyses the use of local identity by the opponents in Goedereede against the amalgamation of their municipality. The decline of this local resistance identity discourse is then examined. The chapter then discusses the dominant role of local entrepreneurs in the formulation of a thin regional identity discourse focusing on the development of the island as a whole. It analyses how this thinner regional identity discourse was constructed by the business sector on the island and how it became the dominant identity discourse through its alignment with elements of existing identity and policy discourses operating at different spatial levels. The aligning of identity discourses focusing on economic development coincides with the growing apart of cultural identity discourses focusing on religious and individual freedom, especially in relation to the regulation of Sunday rest.