Building common identities to promote territorial development in the north of portugal

Abstract

The identities of territories are (re)produced through narratives which select certain characteristics of a territorial entity to influence the perceptions that people and institutions have of it. In the current socioeconomic conditions, these identities can provide a competitive advantage to marginalized areas, due to the possibilities that this offers to exhibit the uniqueness of their territories and products. In order to benefit from the economies generated by the identities of territories, it is necessary to identify joint narratives which are both distinctive and capable of unifying different stakeholders around a shared identity. Using three depopulated NUTS 3 (European Union’s Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics on level 3) in the North of Portugal as case studies, we apply a content analysis of different sources to understand how the identities of territories have been (re)produced and identify the coherences and disparities between different narratives. Although there are many factors that hinder the consolidation of the identities of territories at a subnational scale in continental Portugal, generating economies based on these identities could be done through the identification of common characteristics among municipalities.