SOME PROBLEMS RELATING TO THE REGIONAL IDENTITY OF THE INHABITANTS OF 'LUBELSZCZYZNA'

Since the 1980s Polish science has been showing a growing interest in regional problems. In the past decades the social identity of individuals and communities became thoroughly altered under the influence of systemic changes and widening systems of relations and contexts of functioning linked to the intensifying impact of globalisation. In contemporary sociology regions and regional identity are phenomena representing a correlate of social awareness. 'Lubelszczyzna' is a historical region mostly perceived at present as a geographical or administrative unit that cannot be characterized in the categories of distinct ethnic or ethnographic features. The population of Lubelskie province has not developed regional awareness and in this sense this province is not a proto-region in which the awareness-shaping processes have started. It should rather be seen as a region 'in statu nascendi', in which the awareness-shaping processes have begun but are far from becoming consolidated. 'Lubelszczyzna' is characterised by a relatively weak and diluted regional identity. It is not clear whether the awareness of the region's inhabitants is shaped to the degree allowing them to identify themselves not only with the area closest to their place of residence but also with the entire region.