ABSTRACT
In recent years, regional autonomy and flamenco's inscription on the UNESCO Representative List have profoundly influenced how the tradition is managed and represented both within Andalusia and abroad. Flamenco has become a powerful tool in the Andalusian Government's broader regionalist project. However, flamenco's patrimonialisation in recent years cannot simply be understood within a regional frame. The UNESCO inscription has also been harnessed by Andalusian institutions as a way of legitimising and consolidating the regional development of flamenco. This chapter focuses on research that is of particular relevance to ethnomusicology and cognate disciplines - and presents a study of music and regionalism in the European context, an area frequently overlooked in music studies. However, the regionalisation and heritagization of flamenco is also closely tied up with other levels of analysis. Localism as a category of geographical identity is seldom considered in flamenco scholarship, yet it is an important social and cultural phenomenon in flamenco communities.
