ABSTRACT
Histories, memories and heritage are incorporated in strategies for the construction of a new regional identity – or rather effectively undermining it. This chapter provides insight into how the 'battle of histories' functions and discusses the uses of heritage in a new perspective – one that focuses on heritage strategies in branding of young urban regional networks. It also provides the 'reservoir of histories' that is present in the Arnhem-Nijmegen region according to several canons; 'concise histories', often initiated and funded by public authorities. The canons leave one with the impression of a region that does not want to tell the story of a shared past, but rather sees its main cities as separate entities, competing with each other in the past as well as in the present. The Arnhem-Nijmegen region functions as an urban network, as many activities in the daily lives of its inhabitants are more regionally than locally oriented.
