Regional and Local Studies special issue 2007

Regional diffeRentiation of identity: a coMpaRiSon of poland and ukRaine The paper discusses the findings from a survey conducted on representative samples from three historically dissimilar regions of Poland (Eastern Poland, Galicia, western and northern regions) and two in Ukraine (western and eastern Ukraine). It outlines the results of analyses investigating regional disparities in Poland and Ukraine, and similarities shared by all the five regions in terms of different aspects of local and national identity, taking into account the role of objective factors af-fecting regional disparities (mainly urbanisation rates). A series of cluster analyses has proven that the area of Poland is much more homogeneous than that of Ukraine. Likewise, western Ukrainians showed more similarity to the inhabitants of eastern and south-eastern regions of Poland than to the eastern parts of Ukraine. Regional differentiation as a (potential) object of psychological research Despite its homogenous ethnic composition, Poland is a country with con-siderable regional disparities in many aspects: land relief, level of economic development, unemployment figures, political views and electoral behaviours