ABSTRACT
The minor turn in the comparative social sciences to regional studies provides impetus to an interrogation of the concept of ‘region’. Tellingly, a parallel development in civilizational analysis creates interesting openings in a potential dialogue between historical and comparative sociologists and scholars specializing in civilizational analysis. Re-casting civilizational areas long regarded as unproblematic as ‘multi-civilizational’ and ‘multiregional’ is producing new thinking in civilizational analysis. Meanwhile the turn to regions in the comparative social sciences is bringing world regions, regional formations, and (at times) subnational regions into question. The literature urges us to consider ‘region’ and ‘regionality’ as dynamic concepts.
In addition to this theoretical contemplation, the chapter considers two types of specific regional configurations in the Americas. I argue that both subnational territories and larger cross-border zones circumscribe regionality. Within constituted republics, the figuration of subregions has been central to the articulation of imagined national states. In this sense, the formation of national societies was consubstantial with the outgrowth of local identities and provincialisms. At the same time, subregions are a counterpoint and can even be counter-national. In the chapter, I explore the South-west of the US and the North-east of Brazil as cases. For the second type, Central America and the Caribbean are candidates for multinational cross-border regions. Throughout the analysis, I argue that inter-civilizational engagement and encounters are central dynamics to the formation of regions and regional consciousness.
