There are plenty of symbols and discourses about North Brabant, a province located in the south of the Netherlands. Sure, these stories have something to tell. While these markers may signal one’s Brabantishness, underneath such symbols are processes of regional identification and belonging.

On Friday 9 June 2017 at 14:00, Sandra Wagemakers will defend her PhD dissertation called 'Brabant is Here: Making Sense of Regional Identification' in the auditorium of Tilburg University. The cases analysed in Wagmakers' dissertation reveal how regional identification continues to play a role in contemporary society. With a main focus on media practices, her dissertation uses various methods and empirical data, including interviews, focus groups, and large data sets; tweets and posts and comments on Facebook; the television series Smeris, the sketches from New Kids and the band WC Experience; and observations from everyday life. All contribute to unravelling regional identification in Brabant in one way or another. 

In this study, we discover why people continue to identify with their region, and how these processes are anchored in everyday practices of familiarity and proximity. Wagemakers' dissertation illuminates the discrepancy between the place people call Brabant and the places people really identify with. In the end, this study makes sense of regional identification and by using insights from these case studies explains why ‘Brabant is Here’.