1 Endless plowed farmlands, wide views and impressive skies. When growing up on the Hogeland it seemed very normal. Every day I used to cycle up and down to school, head down hurrying to be in time. Through stretched out lands on muddy roads during autumn and against unforgivingly cold winds in winter. When I got older I started to look around. Amidst these field of production there is rich history and culture. Large farmsteads which belonged to farmers richer than nobility. A humbling openness only interrupted by towering wind turbines and ancient churches. Maybe boring when you just look, but impressive when you really see. While writing this thesis I came to appreciate and enjoy the history and culture of the Hogeland even more. Writing this thesis sometimes seemed endless, however, most of the time I found it enjoyable and rewarding to write about the region I come from. I would like to express my gratitude to several people who supported me throughout the process of writing my thesis. First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor Arie Stoffelen for guidance, support and valuable feedback. Second, I would like to thanks all the interviewees who participated in this research for their interesting stories. Next, I would also like to thank my family and friends for supporting me when necessary. My special thanks go to Evelien for always listening to me and giving me advice. 2 Pressure on public services is increasing due to an ageing population and the continuing process of urbanization. Scale enlargement and redistribution of responsibilities through municipal mergers is often proposed as solution. However, municipal mergers are frequently met with resistance based on rational-economic and/or sociocultural objections. By means of a multi-staged mixed method approach this thesis studies the role of identity discourses in newly amalgamated municipalities. First, analysis of a case study in the municipality Het Hogeland show that the region is a site of collective memory. To embed to the new municipal configuration in historical and cultural narratives, rooted notions like Hogeland and Hunsingo have been actively used by the municipality. Second, incorporation of regional identity played a small yet significant role in the merger process. Active mobilization of shared cultural and historical narratives contributed to the legitimization and acceptance of the Hogeland merger. Involvement of local communities in the merger decision-making process and re-bordering of areas with mismatching identities has been instrumental in this process. Finally, the Hogeland case potentially exemplifies how municipal mergers can facilitate the construction of new meaningful regions. Keywords: Resistance • Sticky regions • Municipal amalgamations • Regional identity • Collective memories • Regional consciousness 3 1. Introduction........................................................................................................................6 2. Scale-enlargement and deinstitutionalization .....................................................................9 2.1 Decentralization, legitimacy and resistance ..................................................................9 3. Regional identity and sense of place .................................................................................10 3.1 Defining regional identity ............................................................................................10 3.2 Regional consciousness vs. regional identity ...............................................................12 3.3 Managing spaces: Sense of place ................................................................................13 4. Linking regional identity to deinstitutionalization .............................................................15 4.1 Thick and thin identities ..............................................................................................15 4.2 Stickiness of regions ....................................................................................................17 4.3 Defining place-marketing as tool for promoting new identities ...................................18 4.4 Conceptual model .......................................................................................................20 5. Merging municipalities: Het Hogeland ..............................................................................22 6. Methodology ....................................................................................................................23 6.1 Research approach .....................................................................................................23 6.1.1 Coding multidimensional and fragmented datasets..............................................27 6.2 Research ethics ...........................................................................................................29 7. Results ..............................................................................................................................29 7.1 Regional consciousness in Het Hogeland .....................................................................29 7.1.1 Population composition and distribution .............................................................30 7.1.2 Associations with the Hogeland region .................................................................31 7.1.3 Characterizing landscape elements ......................................................................34 7.2 From cluster cooperation to municipal amalgamation ................................................36 7.2.1 Prelude to change ................................................................................................36 7.2.2 Configuration discussions: Together but in what way? .........................................38 4 7.2.3 Resistance to the Hogeland merger ......................................................................43 7.3 Sticky regions and rooted orientation .........................................................................45 7.3.1 The stickiness of Middag-Humsterland .................................................................45 7.3.2 Collective memories and rooted regional orientation ..........................................48 7.4 Practical implementation of sociocultural narratives ..................................................51 7.4.1 Naming Het Hogeland ..........................................................................................51 7.4.2 Selecting symbols; a new logo ..............................................................................56 7.4.3 Coat of Arms ........................................................................................................62 7.4.4 Chain of office ......................................................................................................64 7.5 Cohesion through shared connections ........................................................................66 7.6 Tourism coalitions and the selection of narratives ......................................................67 8. Discussion .........................................................................................................................71 8.1 Results ....................................................................................................................71 8.2 Limitations ..............................................................................................................73 9. Conclusion and recommendations ....................................................................................74 9.1 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................74 9.2 Recommendations ..................................................................................................75 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................77 Appendix 1: code grouping associations with Het Hogeland .........................................81 Appendix 2: Provisional ‘’empty’’ coding scheme ..........................................................85 Appendix 3 Informed consent .......................................................................................87 Appendix 4 Reflection logo Hogeland identity ..............................................................89 5 The public sector in many Western European countries is undergoing a process of restructuring. This is due to increasing pressures on public services related to, among others, an ageing population and the continuing process of urbanization (Paasi 2012; Zimmerbauer et al., 2012). Partly because of these matters many, mainly peripheral, regions are suffering from population decline. Restructuring and redistribution of responsibilities should result in reduction of costs and relieve pressures on services provided by the central government. In case of the Netherlands, the Dutch Government formulated plans in 2012 to hand over various welfare systems from the central to the municipal level (Terlouw, 2018). These plans constituted the care for youth, elderly, chronically ill and unemployed (Rijksoverheid, 2019). This implied that the budgets of the municipalities would almost double in size (Terlouw, 2016). Since many municipalities are relatively small in terms of number of inhabitants and financial power, the central government argued that many do not have the capacity to deal with these responsibilities (Terlouw, 2016). Therefore,