Regions and regionalism; the idea of the natural region; the
problem of regional geography

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S CORES of definitions of the word 'region' exist and the
word has a range of meanings extending far beyond geo-
graphy, including groups of counties or other political units
linked together for some administrative, social or commercial pur-
pose, such as an electricity or gas supply, or even qualifying rounds
for international tennis tournaments. A newspaper with a national
sale will organize its reporting services and distribution from a
number of provincial centres; and the author was once shown a
map dividing Ireland into areas, each with its centre for the distri-
bution of Guinness's stout, which could well have served as a
model for a newly rationalized diocesan system. In this chapter
the first section is given to a discussion of regions used for various
purposes with some consideration of the varied meanings of the
word 'regionalism', which in some hands becomes almost a form
of aesthetics; secondly, there is a section on the idea of the natural
region; and finally some consideration of the problem of regional
geography. Although the word 'regional' is inseparably associated
with geography, it is of wide general application. Much that is
written in this chapter is controversial, but it is hoped to show that
some interesting regional work has been done in various countries
with techniques adapted to local circumstances, and that much
more remains to be done.

Within recent years in Britain the term 'regional' has been
widely and loosely applied among industrialists and administrators,
generally for some major division of the country devised for
organizational purposes. In 1851 the Census ¹ divided Britain into
a number of 'subdivisions' for statistical purposes, uniting in each
a number of counties and in 1946 these were altered into a number

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