ABSTRACT

This chapter exhibits key assessments of both major developmental problems and opportunities of the three selected regions and shows how regions are reconceptualized under contemporary world-polity conditions. This provides us with more in-depth insights and much more detailed information on the current situations in each of the three selected regions than the previous sketch of aggregated data in Table 6.4 above. In addition to that, the subsequent sections inform us much deeper about major internal development challenges, and outline what aspects and characteristics of the various regions are considered as favourable or problematic by official authorities, policy-makers and professionals in the field of regional development. Against the backdrop of the information on the marked structural differences between the Western and Eastern regions provided thus far, we can assume that prevailing (world-cultural) assessments directly affect regional identity-formation in the newly created regions. Yet the question is how world-cultural standards affect the identity-formation of regions and what kind of interpretative frames and expectations are most significant and relevant in this regard.