The purpose of this presentation is to discuss how different kinds of representations of regions form a part of the institutionalization and creation of new and older regions of today. This is also closely related to the aim of my thesis. When we talk about words such as new regionalism, we can see that economy has become an important part of the creation of regions. In Sweden new regions are developed as a result of a political and economic agenda. As a part of this regional politics, regions and places are competing with each other to an increasing extent to attract tourists, capital, labour, new inhabitants and companies. By enhancing its distinctive attributes and features, such as culture, regions are said to be more competitive in an international and national context. Different representations of the regions are used to create an image of the regions. This connection between regions and regional features could be seen as a result of a political agenda where it is the uniqueness of the region that is enhanced to create an idea of the region as a base for identity construction. By creating this attractiveness within the regions in different contexts, it exist several different representations of the regions in the same time. This altogether creates the identity of the region. There is one image created to the outside that might not coincide with the image of the inhabitants of the region.  

By studying different representations of the region, in this case with my main focus on Värmland, a region in the middle of Sweden, I hope to get a vision of how the region is constructed in different contexts and to see what different representations that exist. Do they look similar in different contexts and can they actually represent the inhabitants of the region?